Pokemon: Wild Encounters
by Thrawnma
Summary: This is a story that draws from the anime, the games, as well as the Pokemon Special manga. Please enjoy the pooled efforts of the Junk Guild written by me featuring original characters by others as well as myself.
1. Prologue Part 1

She panted, heavy gasps of breath racking her slender body. She had been chased for a long time now, the effort put forth into the pursuit had been staggering. The sky was black with the bodies of Murkrow and the Honchkrow that supervised them, behind her the sounds of baying and yapping as Houndoom and Mightyena followed her scent. Further behind them were the sounds of the men, and the horrible creatures that obeyed them. The loud roars and shrill shrieks as savage Pokemon were let loose into the forest to hunt her down echoed in her ears. She took a second to rest, leaning against a tree, bright and large eyes blinking rapidly, before setting off again, crashing through the underbrush and making as much haste as her small body could.

Why did they chase her so? Her mind was young and inexperienced, she just didn't understand why this had happened. She had just been playing in a field when suddenly the men in the black uniforms appeared, the red and white balls had grown and flashed, the army of Pokemon had borne down upon her before she fled into the neighboring forest.

She was fit and young, but she had been running a long time, running from creatures bred to fly and pursue. The sky was barred to her, the land was no friendlier, and she was getting tired. She needed to think of something.

A thick grouping of bushes provided cover as she ducked behind them and concentrated, she would need a disguise, and she had the ability to do so. A moment later she jumped out again and resumed running, newly disguised to the best of her abilities.

The girl burst through a thick wall of bush and flower and almost fell off the cliff, catching herself a moment before she tumbled off. The drop was long, and ended abruptly in a swiftly flowing river that plunged off a waterfall before tumbling into rapids later. A narrow path alongside the river promised of an escape route, but she would have to climb down.

Her heart raced as the sounds of the pursuers grew closer, she could hear the excited cries of the flying Pokemon above as they circled overhead in search of her. No time to hesitate. She stooped down and lowered her body off the edge, feeble fingers clawing for handholds as she tried to climb down the cliff in a manner she was unskilled and unsuited to. Sure enough, a few feet down, her hand slipped and she found herself falling, and before she could do anything something hard slammed against the back of her head, sending bright lights in front of her eyes before blackness encompassed everything and she was lost, the body plunging into the river below and being swept off and away. She had escaped her pursuers, but at what cost?


	2. Prologue Part 2

"Hey mithter! Mithter!" The purple haired teenager sprinted after the old man, a wallet held in her hand. "Mithter ya dropped yer wallet!"

The man rolled his eyes and stopped. Despite the good intentions of the Samaritan her almost obnoxiously sugar-coated goodness was almost too much for the normal man to bear. Still, he braced himself, smiled and turned around.

"Thank you my dear," The man said with a smile as she approached, only to grimace despite himself as she tripped and planted her head directly into the pavement. She was up a moment later, smiling broadly despite blood pouring from the open wound on her forehead.

"Here you go mithter," the girl handed the wallet over with a smile while blood oozed down her face and trickled on the pavement between them. Despite, or perhaps because of, the girl's utter dedication to good deeds, the man found himself rather unsettled.

"Uh... well... let me reward you by getting you an ice cream... and... a compress."

The girl just grinned, a macabre scene since blood now coated half her face.

"Compress first."

Roughly thirty minutes later the girl was eating an ice cream parfait noisily with a large white gauze bandage taped to her forehead. The man enjoyed a cup of rancid coffee, wincing every time he took a sip but reflecting that he shouldn't be so harsh when confronted with an upstanding young member of society.

"So young miss...?" The man trailed off expectantly. The girl's eyes widened suddenly

"Jeeperth yeth," The man winced at the use of the word 'jeepers' but kept his mouth shut, "I'm thorry. My name ith Thiel Crithtenthen, and I'm a Pokemon Trainer."

"Thiel..." The man said.

"No, Thiel!" The girl stressed the first syllable, as if it made a difference with her lisp. But the man was quick to catch on.

"Oh, right, of course. Ciel...?" The question was left answered only by a jubilant smile on the girl's face.

"Yeth!" The girl nodded emphatically. The man rolled his eyes when the girl wasn't looking and set a note of money on the table.

"Well miss Ciel, I thank you again for the return of my wallet and you can use that to pay, anything left over is yours. You've done a good deed today," The man said as he rewarded the girl with a genuine smile. The girl smiled kindly in return, displaying the fact that apparently her two front teeth hadn't grown in yet, perhaps the reason for her lisp.

The man shook his head and left the ice cream parlor, shaking his head. Ten years ago he'd have scorned and hated the child the instant he laid eyes upon her, but now...

He laughed, at himself. Now he had given up such lofty condescension for a more mundane look on things, had joined the people he had once spurned. And surprisingly, he didn't hate it so much. Truth be told, it was enjoyable at times. And as time had passed, it had become more and more enjoyable. He could remember the power, the pleasure, the heady feeling of being someone who obeyed no laws but his own, but now...

Now he obeyed because it was his choice. For many his name had been symbolic of power, strength, might. Many still took his name to be a symbol of such things. But because of that he had abandoned his old name, had slipped away, faded into obscurity hoping his legacy would be forgotten. Unfortunately, such was the way of things that his own disappearance had simply contributed to his notoriety. In abandoning himself he may have inadvertantly created a longer-living monster than if he'd stayed within the sight of things.

He shook his head to clear that though. No, it was better for him to have left, even if the scars remained on the world he couldn't attempt to comfort himself with the though that remaining the head of that organization would have done the world any sort of good. He was a normal man now, and he was honestly and truly content and happy with that and his new life. No one could doubt that the bond between him and his Pokemon had grown only stronger. He could safely say he made the right decision when confronted with that awe-inspiring young trainer.

The man formerly known as Giovanni squared his shoulders and resumed his travel, he had only been passing through this town after all, and it wouldn't do for him to remain in one place too long, at least not as long as his name and face were still as widely known as it they were. A quick stop at the local Pokemon Center to recover his gear and his team, and he was off, once again.


	3. Prologue Part 3

"Okay Hitmonchan, use Mach Punch!" Chris commanded as he circled his opponent in synch with his Pokemon, the enemy Venusaur cautiously shifting its body along with them to face the attack. The opposing trainer was a cocky sucker, a nasty smirk on his haughty features. The Hitmonchan blurred forward and struck the opposing Venusaur heavily, but the type difference and the Pokemon's own stalwart sturdiness meant it didn't take the damage necessary to bring it down.

"Hah! What did you think that was gonna do? Venusaur, bind it with Vine Whip and start charging a Solar Beam."

With a loud grunt the plant Pokemon complied, sending thick tentacle vines out to ensnare the Hitmonchan and reel it in while the flower on its back began to glow.

"Your first mistake..." Chris started, having lowered his head and talking in a low voice with a simulated hispanic accent. "Was to let my Hitmonchan get in close."

The "Cool" Trainer opened his mouth to say something but was cut off.

"Your second mistake..." Chris continued on in the dramatic parody of Antonio Banderas, "Was to bind my Hitmonchan with Vine Whip and start pulling it in... your third mistake was using Solar Beam on a cloudy day..." Chris pointed to the overcast heavens and the Cool Trainer realized his folly. "And your last mistake." Chris's head snapped up and his eyes blazed with fire. "Was to underestimate me! Now, use a two-time Ice and Fire Punch Hitmonchan!"

"Chan!" The Pugilistic Pokemon smiled and pushed forward, using the Venusaur's own Vine Whips to accelerate it faster as its respective fists glowed with fire and ice. The Cool Trainer tried to send off a command but it was too late, the Venusaur was scorched and frozen and knocked off its squat four legs and almost careening into its trainer. The unnamed Trainer looked at Chris with a new respect and something bordering on fear now, but shook his head.

"That was just a warmup!" He declared as he recalled the Venusaur and pulled another Pokeball out from his belt. "Try THIS!"'

A Rhydon erupted from the Pokeball, with a triumphant roar it stomped its feet and loomed over the Hitmonchan, who simply looked nonchalant.

"Now, Horn Drill!" The Cool Trainer yelled and the horn on the Rhydon's head begin to spin at terrible speed, a moment later it lunged at Hitmonchan, carving a massive gouge in the ground and sending up dirt and debris everywhere, obscuring the scene from sight.

"Good job Hitmonchan," Chris complimented.

The Cool Trainer smirked, "'Good job?' Your Hitmonchan is dead, man, one hit from Horn Drill and-"

"It has to hit to be effective, take a look."

The Cool Trainer did. What he saw was shocking, to him at least.

"What?!" The Hitmonchan was unfazed by the attack, standing a few inches from where the Rhydon's head was buried in the ground. The two Pokemon glared balefully at each other.

"Heh, okay, Hitmonchan, show that Rhydon a thing or two. Start it off with a Sky Uppercut!"

"Hitmonchan!" The Hitmonchan sent the massive Rhydon flying into the air.

"Finish it with the secret attack!" Chris called out.

The Hitmonchan bent its knees slightly before leaping into the air above the Rhydon, somersaulting briefly before lashing out with its legs.

"Hi! Jump! Kick!" Chris roared as the Rhydon fell back to earth, unconscious and broken, the Hitmonchan expertly next to it. The Cool Trainer was stunned and had fallen to his knees.

Chris recalled his Pokemon and walked over to his opponent.

"Ahem." He looked expectant. Numbly the Trainer reached into his pocket and retrieved the agreed upon amount and handed it to Chris who smiled briefly before stepping off on his way, leaving the tattered remains of his opponents in the dust.

"It was just your misfortune to meet me, you were already deeaaaaaaargh ow damn ow ouch ow ow ouch oww yargh!" Chris, in his haze of winning, had walked off a small cliff and fallen into a thorn patch.

"... I have to stop doing that."


	4. Prologue Part 4

"You sir, look like you could use an item." The young woman addressed the middle-aged man openly, a broad and honest smile displayed on her face. She kneeled behind a drop cloth spread with various items, some berries, others exotic looking talismans like a gruesome and wickedly sharp claw while a simple apple core sat opposite it. Her wares were proudly displayed, no pricetags sullied their appearances and she had all the look of an honest, but simple, trader, despite her well-kept appearance.

The slightly soggy-looking man just kept walking, huffing under his breath. A flash of a scowl went across the woman's face but she wasn't dissuaded, people weren't in her business long if they were.

"You wouldn't happen to be a trainer of great talent with that Kingdra there, would you?"

The man paused. She knew she had him now.

"How did..." The man turned to look at her, watery eyes staring at her blearily. "How did you..."

"Sir, a trader of my calibre must, absolutely must, know her wares and the suitable customers of said wares." She swept and arm over her cloth to illustrate. "Call it a trader's sixth sense, but I knew you had a Kingdra, and I knew, I knew sir, that you were a trainer to reckon with. Forgive me for being so forward as I'm sure you've encountered, in your vast experience, people willing to do fraudulent business for the sake of profiting themselves most but those of us who possess this sixth sense are also the pure traders. We exist, purely, to aid people such as yourself in obtaining items and various sundries they themselves were unaware they needed."

The man just blinked a bit, taken aback and off-balance. The woman pounced verbally.

"This," She said, holding up an ivory white spike, "Is the Dragon Tooth, a famed item of historical repute. It has the awesome ability to mystically enhance the powers of a Dragon type, and their attacks, such as your Kingdra. I ventured through Johto to the famed Dragon Cave to obtain this artifact, I have only three and have sold one other, so I was reluctant to put it on the sale cloth today but..."

She sighed. "But I knew I would have to part with it."

The man cleared his throat. "So..."

The woman was silent, waiting for the man to step into the trap.

"So... how much... are your wares?" He began, still cautious, but Gwen Lloyd, con-artist extraordinaire, knew she had him.

Gwen smiled disarmingly, "Sir, these are the highest quality wares that I have personally gathered from the great lands. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, even ventures into far-off Orre for these. And for these rare and valuable items I must charge worth and cost. However when you consider the long-term benefits of such an item..." She trailed off meaningfully.

"How... how powerful WOULD my Kingdra be with the Dragon Tooth?" Alain "The Drizzle" Driscoll, renowned sap and "colleague" of the Elite 4, asked still thinking of himself as the canny shopper.

"Sir, I would not be lying if I said you couldn't possibly imagine."

Alain's heart skipped a beat.

"And for such a measly sum as one hundred and fifty dollars... I... I almost feel guilty now for giving you such an overwhelming advantage for such a lo-"

"Here." The money was thrust into Gwen's hands as she waxed poetic, and the Tooth was snatched from her. Gwen smiled indulgently as Alain called his Kingdra forward and pressed the Tooth onto it while Gwen began to casually gather up her wares. Her real sixth sense, the one that signalled when saps were close and danger even closer, was now going off even louder than the time she'd tried to sell a chunk of bogus charcoal to an undercover Jenny for her Growlithe.

Sure enough, trouble came in the form of a raven-haired girl with an oversized purple bow binding her hair behind her.

"Oh cool, you've got one of those too?" Stella asked Alain, pulling a Dragon Tooth from her pocket that matched the one the annoyed Kingdra was steadfastly refusing to take charge of. As Gwen finished putting her pack together and stood up slowly so as not to draw attention to herself she made a sign into the woods that surrounded her in preparation.

"Wha-" Alain was stunned to see the copy of the precious item in the girl's hands.

"Yeah, they were giving these things out for the promotion of that new arcade game, Elite Lance's Dragon Fighter 2k." The girl smiled, a little confused as she saw the color drain from the man's face as he woodenly turned to look at Gwen.

"Well, looks like it's time for me to ply my wares elsewhere. I recall Hoenn being nice this time of year," Gwen smiled as a large bone flew out from the woods behind her to suddenly strike the Kingdra back, in a flash a Nosepass was between the woman and the jipped customer.

"Sandstorm, get us some cover Noh!" Gwen ordered and suddenly the area was obscured by a thick cloud of sand, dirt, and gravel. Alain and Stella coughed and ran to escape the tempest while Gwen, having produced a set of goggles and covered her face, escaped with her Pokemon into the forest. A few minutes later the Sandstorm died down, Alain lay in a ditch covered in muddy water while Stella came out from behind a tree, dusting sand and dirt off of herself.

"Huh, found the oddest little thing while I was back there." She remarked and held out a small, ice sculpture of a Kingdra. "It must have blown over there during the storm."

Numbly, Alain took the ice sculpture, realizing that Gwen's so-called sixth sense had really been part of an elaborate setup involving her Pokemon feeding her information and backup while she played him like a sucker. The numbness of his hand from the melting ice was nothing compared to the shame and humiliation he felt at being played for a patsy so eloquently.

"Hey, you okay man?" Stella's voice seemed very far away to Alain all of a sudden.

"Yeah, I'm fine.... is that game any good?"

"What... the Lance Dragon Fighter thing?"

"Yeah."

Stella shook her head, "It kinda sucks."

"Uh-huh... okay, I'm going to take a nap now, bye-bye." With that Alain passed out. Stella looked around nervously, and deciding not to get involved, just kept walking on her journey.

"What a weirdo."


	5. Prologue Part 5

"Okay, here's the deal guys," The huddle of Pokemon centered around a slender (some might even say wiry, others "scrawny") brunette who was kneeling with a large suitcase in front of her.

"Today's the big day. This town's Contests are pretty good. Hardly world renowned, but there's enough of a population of Coordinators and Pokemon in the area that it's recognize as one of the leading places for up and coming Coordinators, got me?"

The Pokemon around her nodded, they got it.

"Good. Now, just because it isn't famous doesn't mean it isn't _important_. Because it is a place for up and coming Coordinators a lot of bigwigs from other major Contest Halls in the country come here to scout people and get an eye of the upcoming rookies. Remember, a Contest is only part talent, the other ninety-nine parts are..."

One of her Pokemon, a Dunsparce named Monday, chirped.

"That's right, the other ninety-nine parts are execution, effort, endurance, and enjoyment. We need to hit the cues right, we need to do our best, we need to last all throughout to the very end and most importantly," Frieda the Pokemon Coordinator smiled widely at her team. "We need to have some fun. Now they're only doing three contests today, Beauty, Coolness, and Cuteness. Tuesday, Wednesday, you'll get your time to shine soon, I promise."

The Skarmory named Tuesday looked a bit miffed but ruffled its metallic array of feathers before calming itself back down. It knew the drill, after all. Wednesday the Magneton looked impassive, but an air of disappointment settled around it soon after. It was a most expressive array of magnets. Consequently the poor Steel type began to feel itself begin to slide closer as the Magneton's negative mood increased. A quick, gentle peck knocked the depressive Magneton out of its musings, and with an apologetic change in altitude the two Pokemon returned their attentions to their Coordinator.

"Okay, so that means Monday, Friday, and Thursday are on the queue today. Monday, I want you to lead with your usual set. Use Defense Curl and Yawn, smartly, we're still working on your full repertoire. If you have to, try and improv but for now we'll increase your chances with a little makeup and this ribbon," Frieda held up a red strip of satin that she tied into a bow around Monday's tail expertly. A moment later some makeup was skilly applied to accentuate and make Monday's face appear even more adorable than before, emphasizing the large eyes.

"I think you're solid, at least for this competition. Okay, now for Thursday," Frieda turned her attentions to the largest and most impressive of her Pokemon, the Milotic named Thursday.

"Beauty, so remember the techniques we've focused upon. Captivate them first, then show them your Water Pulse, follow through with a Surf, then finish it with Hydro Pump. You've got the skills in the bag, so now lets give you a little jewelry..." Frieda draped a chain around her Pokemon's graceful neck, on the end of it hung a large piece of polished and shaped turquoise. "And some makeup to emphasize your eyes..." Frieda applied skillfully, "And you're beautiful, a shoo-in at this level."

"And with Monday and Thursday done that just leaves... You, Friday." Frieda directed her attention to her most... grungy Pokemon, the grizzled Scyther she called Friday. It huffed a bit before leveling its single functioning eye at her, expectantly.

"You know what to do, we've done it before." Frieda began, sounding more like a lecture than a pep-talk now. "But!" Frieda raised her voice to accentuate the word suddenly. "You are not!" Another raising of the voice. "Allowed!" Another punctuation. "To threaten the judges this time. You understand? You win this competition by playing the rules of this competition, and I'll make sure and find you some greasy Pokemon to beat up later, okay? But for now..." Frieda reached up and grabbed Friday by a spike on his head and pulled him down to look at her, before removing the hand and holding it up for him to see.

"We get you a bath."


	6. Prologue Part 6

"Hahahahah!" Chris laughed heartily as he continued along his way. He still felt good over the fantastic performance his Pokemon had displayed battling the CoolTrainer, and now he felt eager to challenge another trainer to battle.

Chris had been walking through one of the seemingly endless forests of the world he lived in when the forest abruptly gave way to a barren collection of plateaus and cliffs, brown rock greeted him where once there had been the bark of tree trunks. He was puzzled for a moment, but shrugged when he, once again, realized it was just the way of the land to change according to its whims.

"The chances of me finding a trainer out here though are…" Chris began to lament when he heard the shift of gravel and spun in place to catch glimpse of his quarry.

A trainer! He had to be! The Wartortle by his side indicated as much, and the guy didn't look that far off from his own age either.

"C- Can I help you…?" Vincent de la Bretonne asked the strange man in a quiet voice, his mannerisms and appearance worrying him immediately.

"You've got Pokemon."

"Yes…?" Vincent replied cautiously.

"Battle, now." Chris swept his loosely-worn button down shirt aside to reveal the Pokeballs at his hip, much like an old gunslinger would have swept aside a poncho or trench coat to reveal the gun he wore.

"Uh… no thanks?" Vincent tried to refuse, but something in the other man's eyes told him that he wouldn't be rid of him soon.

"Oh c'mon, listen, if you're worried about a strength difference, just name the Pokemon you'll use's level and I'll match it (or close to it)." Chris added the last part under his breath.

Nervously Vincent eyed Kipper at his side, the Wartortle looked back at him and shook his head. Kipper had been helping Vincent explore the cave system in the area due to rumors of an ancient civilization having made the area home and was worn out. The only other real battler on the team was…

"Around thirties, I guess?" Vincent reached for the Pokeball that held Peri in it but left his fingers dangling over it (fingers dangling over his balls lolz).

"Great! I've got just the thing." Chris said and reached to get the Ball which held Poliwhirl in it.

"Okay, here goes…" Chris said, hand on his own ball (lol!).

"Lets go!" The two trainers chorused.

"Peri!" The Gardevoir leapt from the Ball, ready to battle.

"Poliwhirl!" The spiraltastic Pokemon stood ready to fight.

Despite himself, Vincent smiled. Poliwhirls weren't known to be amazingly powerful, and Peri had several moves she could use to great effectiveness against such a type of Pokemon.

"Use Bubble!"

Vincent's moment of music cost him though as Chris got the first attack off while Peri waited for an order. The spray of Bubbles rocked and exploded around the Gardevoir, but the Pokemon wasn't badly injured at all. Still, it dealt a serious blow to Vincent's pride.

"Uh- U- Use Confusion!" It wasn't Gardevoir's most powerful attack, but it was the only one Vincent could recall at the moment.

Peri squinted her eyes at the Poliwhirl which was currently circling her like a shark and sent a blast of psychic power at it, a weak blast but an accurate one. Poliwhirl was hit and sent down to a knee.

"Not bad!" Chris congratulated, though he knew that in terms of individual abilities he was the better battler and his team better prepped than Vincent's. He almost felt bad for picking the fight now, but since it was started he intended to finish it.

"But that's enough, hit that Psychic Bitch with a Surf attack!"

"Hey! She's not a bi-" But Vincent's objection was cut off as Poliwhirl rose atop a stream of water… and promptly ran into a tree.

"What? No!" Chris cried as he realized what happened. "He got confused by your attack!"

"What? He did? He did! All right! Now's the chance to counter. Peri, use that new move, use Hidden Power!"

Peri nodded and replied with a cheery noise, channeling power to her hands before forming a ball of energy. Meanwhile Chris had gone to stand behind his Pokemon and coach him up.

"C'mon Poliwhirl you GOTTA get up, snap out of it!" But the Tadpole Pokemon was beyond listening.

"Okay, hit him Peri!"

"Gar!" The Pokemon cried and complied, sending the ball of mysterious energy flying at the Poliwhirl. At that moment, everything seemed to go into slow motion. The confused Poliwhirl rose, stumbled, and immediately fell to the side, safely out of the attack's path. However Chris, who had been kneeling not far behind his Pokemon, was still in the way. As Chris and Vincent's eyes widened Peri's frightened cry filled the area with sound as she realized she was about to hit a human with her attack. A moment later Chris was consumed by light, then silence ruled.


	7. Prologue Part 7

"Oh. What. The. Fuck?" Chris said a moment after regaining his senses.

Tits.

"What. The. FUCK?"

TITS.

"WHAT. THE. FUCK?"

TITS on his chest.

"What did you fucking do?!"

Tits weren't the only thing. There was a distinct vacuum of presence in his pants, his hips had flared out, the waist had narrowed, and in place of the well muscled and athletic young man there was now a well muscled and athletic young woman. What the fuck , indeed.

"Uh… that… that's new…" Vincent offered lamely. Even his Pokemon looked shocked, staring at Chris one moment, then back to her hands, then back at Chris.

"What move was that?!" Chris suddenly demanded, struggling to keep clothes in place on the newly reshaped body. Everything was off, and his body had expanded and contracted in all sorts of places.

"Hidden Power…"

"So your Pokemon's Hidden Power is the ability to turn dudes into chicks huh? You get a lot of demand for that where you're from?"

"No- I- I don't know- That's the first time she's used that…"

"Just shuttup and do it again and turn me back!"

"Okay! Um… Peri, Hidden Power… on the trainer."

The Pokemon complied and once again Chris was bathed in light, and when the light had faded.

"Oh you've got to be shitting me."

Nothing had changed.

"I guess it's one-way?" Vincent offered lamely and in return earned a glare that could have put holes in a Rhydon's hide.

"You 'guess' huh? What kind of fucked up Pokemon do you have man, I've never heard of this happening, I mean… What the fuck dude?" Chris was getting upset, but not in the hysterical woman kinda way, in the pissed off martial artist 'gonna break your head off' kind of way.

"Calm down, lets just try to think of this sensibly."

"Calm down? Calm DOWN?! I've got TITS. My schlong has turned into a hooha, and you're telling me to calm DOWN?! How can I be a combat bu- Oh fuck you dude… c'mere!" Chris sprinted at the stammering adventurer and before the other trainer could escape had the young man in a headlock.

"Should I STILL calm down?!" Chris demanded.

Vincent just gurgled a bit, head and throat constricted by the new girl's very strong arms. He also suddenly realized his position put him in a very… interesting place on the girl's anatomy, and as he flailed with his arms he caught a touch of the girl's bare bum, her pants forgotten in her sprint to punish him.

Chris suddenly came to the realization that Vincent was, in essence, being forced to cop feels on her, and suddenly she grew red-hot with anger. Peri, meanwhile, had started fretting and getting angry at this assault on her Vincent, and was starting to fidget.

Chris suddenly wrenched Vincent around so the man had his back to his Pokemon and did her best impersonation of his voice where Peri couldn't see it.

"Hidden Power, again!"

Peri was confused, but complied, it was an order and hopefully the attack would separate the attacker from Vincent.

When the light cleared Peri realized the mistake she'd made, as Chris stood, smirking viciously at the newly transformed Vincent who had a look on his face that was… inscrutable.

"How does it feel, fucker?" Chris asked, snidely.

Vincent just glared back but said nothing, recognizing that it HAD all started with Peri's oddly natured Hidden Power attack. Had it just been damaging, things might ACTUALLY have been better with Chris's severely injured body compared to this.

"… so now what?" Vincent asked lamely.

"Now… I dunno. Where the hell do you go from here? I've never heard of something like this happening, BUT!" Chris smiled viciously now. "NOW you have a motivator to follow me and help me find way to reverse this nonsense. I figured you might try and skip out on your responsibility if I didn't get you in a similar situation."

Vincent swallowed noisily, recognizing that he probably would have looked for first, easiest out he could get.

"M'names Vincent…" Vincent mumbled and held out her new, smaller hand.

Chris, bouncing back quickly from the emotional bout, smiled, still a bit viciously, and took the other girl's hand and shook it, squeezing maybe a little too firmly.

"Chris. Now getcher shit together cause we're going to find a way to take care of this starting right this very second you… you…" Chris sighed. "I got nothing. Just get together quick, I wanna take care of this ASAP. And you're responsible, don't ever forget that."

"Yeah… well."

"Well nothing!" Chris yelled. "You're a trainer; it's YOUR job to watch the battlefield at every moment to make sure that not only does your Pokemon do the best it can, but also that no one gets seriously hurt. Five steps to the left or right and that attack wouldn't have possibly hit me, even if Poliwhirl hadn't do- Oh my god! Poliwhirl!"

As Chris ran off to tend to her Pokemon Vincent directed a look at Peri, as if to plead for help. The graceful green Pokemon looked like she was still in schock from what she had just done, but a simple a shrug and a "I guess, whatever" sort of look caused Vincent to sign in resignation. It looked like when it was all done and over with, two trainers had been turned into girls and teamed up that day.

Vincent fumbled with her clothing in an attempt to look and feel more decent, and as Chris came back with Poliwhirl safely returned to his Pokeball it was a more… ready Vincent that greeted her.

"We're not going to have much fun looking for a way to reverse this with clothes that don't fit. We… we should head that way," Vincent pointed. "There's a town not far and we can do something…"

Chris nodded, and without saying a word set out. Vincent motioned for Kipper (who had been hiding behind a tree in shock for the majority of the affairs) and Peri to follow behind him as they set out.

"Someone out there has a very, very sick and twisted sense of humor." Vincent noted.

Chris just nodded, "And when I meet him, I'm gonna beat his pudgy ass into the ground."


	8. Prologue Part 8

The town was just your typical kind of town. You know, it had a shopping complex, grocery stores. A few office buildings and a warehouse district. There were some banks and a PokeMart and a Pokemon Treatment Center. Just a typical, nondescript, no-need-to-go-into-more-detail sort of town.

In this nondescript town, at one of the aforementioned nondescript banks, it was quiet. In fact, it was downright peaceful here. This is not the location of the robbery.

At one of the OTHER nondescript banks, the robbery was taking place, but no one knew about it. It was an older bank, one with a classic concrete and iron vault filled with money that no one actually went into all day long. It relied more upon its old and solid construction than sophisticated security systems to keep it safe during the day. After all, there WERE armed guards and anyone who wanted to steal anything would have to come in through the front, so not even the security cameras were active since the bank manager decided to save money on power and video tape by turning them on in the vault after-hours only.

Thus it was the perfect target for her plan. In the center of the room the floor began to bulge and push out, there was a crackling noise as concrete and steel rebar was pushed aside and destroyed by the intruder's physical presence. A moment later a grey, rocky, craggy head was poking out through a gap in the floor, sending chunks of debris to the sides. Another moment later the Rhyhorn had crawled free of the hole and shook loose debris off its back. A second later it was joined by its trainer, a young woman with a large set of headphones resting around her neck and a cute ensemble of a dark blouse with a print and a maroon miniskirt with knee-high heeled boots.

"Good work Rhyhorn, back in your ball." Robin A. Bank (aptly named) recalled her Pokemon and stored its ball in her small pack that served as her purse and trainer bag. The plan was going off without a hitch, so far, and she only needed a few more minutes to wrap up.

"Okay Tentacruel," Robin called out the man-o-war Pokemon, "Get grabbin'."

The Pokemon's dozens of tentacles reached out and began to ensnare sacks of money and pulled them in, in the span of only a few minutes it had secured a large portion of the vault's contents and was contentedly holding onto it. Robin smiled and recalled the Pokemon to its ball, the held cash returning with it. Perfect.

"Hoiyah!" She gave a small victory cry as she leapt back in the hole and was greeted by Diglett, who had been responsible for digging the extensive tunnel in the first place.

"Okay, lets head back. Don't forget to seal the tunnel behind me Little-Dig," Robin winked cutely at her mole Pokemon and began to crawl along, momentarily regretting her cute outfit as she was on her hands and knees in the middle of a dirty tunnel but it was just SO cute…

Twenty minutes later and she had reached the exit, out of town in a small copse of trees the tunnel opened up. By the time the bank realized the money was stolen, the police tracked the tunnel down, and everything was put together she would be long gone with fat stacks of cash. The image caused Robin to grin happily.

A grin that faded when she rose out of the hole and collided heads with someone.

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Robin complained as she fell back, into the hole, become entrapped for a moment as her butt fell in and her legs and arms caught her from falling further, providing a very interesting view for the person she'd ran into.

For his part, Ryan Ingram TRIED to not look at the girl's odd lace-and-teddy-bear-print side-tie panties, but hey when you're clocked in the jaw out of nowhere and fall back to suddenly get an eyeful of such a sight, it's hard NOT to look. He might have stared a bit, actually. But after a moment (or a few minutes, seriously, lace panties with teddy bear prints AND side-tie?) he rose and, cautiously held a hand out to the infuriated looking girl who had been vainly struggling to extract herself from the pit.

"Need a hand?" He offered lamely.

Robin eyed Ryan's hand as if it were a snake… on fire… before reluctantly taking it and allowing him to help her out of her predicament. A moment later Diglett arrived and she recalled the Pokemon to its ball, thankful she had been freed before it could see her in such a situation.

The girl thief took a deep breath, sighed, and turned around with a genuine, if forced, smile to thank Ryan with.

"Thank… you." She forced the words out and held her hand out to offer a shake. Ryan took it, feeling more confident and realizing the girl was, actually, pretty cute.

"No, I'm sorry. I was hovering around that hole and didn't expect anyone to pop out. Are you okay? My names Ryan, Ryan Ingram."

Robin smile became less forced. This guy wasn't so bad…. Maybe. He didn't suspect anything and seemed genuinely apologetic for his part.

"Robin. I'm Robin A. Bank."

Fate chose that time for the loud wail of a police siren to be heard in the city. Truth be told it had nothing to do with her robbery, that wouldn't be detected for another eight hours at minimum, but it had the effect of causing Ryan's eyes to widen with shock and for him to release her hand like he'd been bitten and jump back a few feet.

"You're robbing a bank?!" Ryan asked, incredulous.

Robin blinked in confusion.

"Yeah, I'm Robin A. Bank, you got a problem?" She huffed, putting her hands on her hips.

Ryan's eyes narrowed. "Of course I do, you've done something wrong!"

It suddenly clicked in Robin's head and she almost began to beat herself senseless as she realized the mixup despite the accuracy of his allegations.

"No no no! I didn't ROB a bank, my NAME is Robin A. Bank!" She protested.

Ryan was suspicious now though. "Oh? And the tunnel?"

Robin waved it off as if it were nothing, "Oh, that's just my escape route from robbing the ba…" Now she really did hit herself in the head.

"Ah hah! I KNEW that bit about your name was a lie!"

"No! My name IS Robin A. Bank, and I… uh…"

"… your name is Robin A. Bank, and you were just robbing a bank?"

A little bit of Robin's mind just said, "Screw it."

"Yep, I'm Robin A. Bank, I just got done robbing a bank. Now…" Robin's eyes narrowed menacingly. "What do you plan to do about it?"

Ryan shrugged, sort of relieved to have finally gotten a grasp of the situation and filled with confidence that he knew what to do next. "Well I guess I'll stop you and bring you back for justice."

Robin couldn't help herself, she put a hand over her mouth and began to laugh obnoxiously, "OH HOHOHOHOHO! You're going to bring me to justice? Listen little boy, someday the world's gonna be mine and then the value of justice is going to change, you understand me?"

Ryan was beginning to get the feeling this bitch was crazy. "Yeah whatever, step up Rukia," Ryan slipped a Pokeball into his hand, dropped it and bounced it off his foot to let the Empoleon out, which stood menacingly before Robin.

The thief suddenly thought she might be out of her league in terms of battling potential, so she decided to do what she was best at.

Cheat and run.

"Tentacruel, Rhyhorn go!" Robin threw her Pokemon out in a pair. Before Ryan could protest she'd already given orders.

"Tentacruel, Supersonic! Rhyhorn, escape!" As Tentacruel enveloped Ryan and Rukia with a blast of Supersonic noise to debilitate them Robin leapt on Rhyhorn's back as it began to gallop, slowly picking up speed till it was bowling trees over in its mad dash. When they were sufficiently far away Robin used her ball to recall Tentacruel, reclaiming her Pokemon.

"See ya later Ryan! Bye bye!" Robin waved cheerfully as she made her getaway. For his part Ryan felt miserable, both from the attack and the fact he'd been suckered so neatly. Robin had made her getaway, not entirely clean but she was still going, going, gone.

"Come back, Rukia." Ryan reclaimed the disappointed steel-penguin before sighing and looking at the town.

"Better go tell the police…" Ryan said, depressed, but making a vow there.

"Yeah Robin, I WILL see you later."


	9. Prologue Part 9

"ORYA!" Chu Hsang yelled loudly as he led his Pokemon through another kata of his own invention. Punches, kicks, flips, blocks, the bronze skinned, musclebound shortstack trainer motioned and his Pokemon followed suit, mimicking his moves as best they could given their anatomy and abilities. Lee, Hsu's Hitmonlee, slacked a bit but still participated. Leading the group of fighting Pokemon, in front, was Eve, Hsu's Flareon who had risen to her hind legs and was making the most effort to mimic the human's movements. The rest of his team all participated in at roughly the same level - studious and diligent. These daily training sessions were taken quite seriously by the trainer, and with the noted exception of Lee, the rest of his Pokemon also took them seriously.

The session had already lasted mosted of the morning, as the midday sun began to trickle through the treetops into the small clearing that he had chosen for their exercises sweat was already thick on the group. The morning had started early, with a run, then a swim, then a hike, then various calisthenic exercises and a small degree of impromptu strength training sessions utilizing various aspects of the environment. Now he had been leading them in katas for the past hour, and they were finally winding down. As a result of this training they rarely had more than a few hours in the afternoon and evening to actually travel or battle, but Hsu believed in his methods as they had served his BROTHER well enough.

"Okay guys, that's enough for today. Lee!" Hsu barked at his lazing Pokemon. "You're slacking off again! Keep that up and you'll never be as powerful as you think you are!"

The Hitmonlee seemed to roll its eyes, a gesture too subtle for the odd little teenager to catch, but walked off with the rest of the team to get a drink to cool it off.

Hsu sniffed and got his own canteen out and started to drain it, his free hand drying the perspiration off him with a towel that should have been washed a week before when a loud noise of commotion caught his attention.

"What?!" Hsu asked, crushing the plastic canteen in his hands accidentally (an action that seemed to happen to him too often) before he began to sprint at top-speed towards his Pokemon, and the source of the noise.

There he beheld the source of the noise - another trainer had come with his Pokemon, and now the two groups were eyeing each other and making hostile noises as they crowded around the bountiful, but small, freshwater spring.

The other trainer had been shouting at the fighting team to get away when all of a sudden he caught sight of Hsu.

"Hey, are these your Pokemon?! Tell them to get the hell away from my spring!"

Hsu's eyes narrowed angrily. "Your spring?! I sure as hell don't see your name on it, whatever your name is!"

The slightly older teen's eyes narrowed in response. "My name is Arthur Enton, and I'm the local leader of the gym, and these are my training grounds. I've certainly been training here longer than you have, kid."

Hsu raised his fist in defiance, "My name aint 'kid'! It's Hsu Chang and you'd do damned good to remember that. Now get your Pokemon out of our way, we've been training all morning and deserve this!"

Arthur just smirked. "'Deserve it' huh? I feel bad for your Pokemon, they've been training all morning long and they still look this weak?"

It turned out it was in fact possible for Hsu's eyes to narrow even further, "What did you just say...?" He said as quietly and, he hoped, as dangeously as he could.

"I said," Arthur was now beginning to enjoy antagoning the shorter youth. "That I feel bad for Pokemon that train so hard and get nowhere with it. You wouldn't stand a chance against me right now if you were to battle me."

Hsu snapped, "Like hell! Your bugs wouldn't stand a chance against a team of this power! We'd squash you!"

On some level Arthur knew better than to reply after baiting the boy so badly. On some level.

"Hey shut your mouth! Your fighting types don't have a thing to throw against the might of these bugs!" Arthur objected, loudly and taking a step forward, angling his body forward and glaring as he tried to intimidate the other trainer through physical presence.

"Bull! Lets settle this properly, a Pokemon battle!" Hsu challenged.

Arthur just smiled, nastily. "Yeah, that sounds wonderful to me, and I'll even let your pathetic team get the first drink at the spring as a courtesy before their defeat."

Hsu growled but kept his mouth shut. Truth be told his party was almost dehydrated now and were looking unsteady. "Fine, don't come crying when we whip your ass though."

Arthur's only response was smile even more nastily.

Thirty minutes later and the two teams were refreshed and standing off in the middle of the clearing that Hsu had led his team at.

"Ready to lose?" Hsu asked cockily.

"Funny, I was going to ask you that. By the way, I'm dying to know, but do you walk around in a bath robe everywhere?"

"This is a gi! If you had half a brain in that ugly head of yours you'd know that."

"Whatever kid, lets just get this over with."

"I agree! Loom stand ready!" Hsu made a dramatic punching motion with his fist as his Breloom stepped out from behind him, stepping into a martial arts stance as it stood ready.

"Huh, a Breloom, how cute. Megane, show him how it's done." Arthur ordered and his Yanmega fluttered forward, hovering menacingly.

"Ready?" Hsu asked.

"Lets do it."

"Battle! Start with Stun Spore, keep that bug from moving!"

Breloom complied by rapidly shaking its body, sending a gust of noxious spores at its fluttering foe.

"Megane, counter with Silver Wind!"

The Yanmega fluttered its wings rapidly, sending a shower of scaly particles through the spore cloud which impacted with Loom, knocking it back and away. But the attack had still been successful as a part of the stun cloud had made contact, causing Megane to flicker back and forth from the ground to the air as its body seized up randomly.

"Damn!" Arthur cursed.

Hsu was silent, the Yanmega had been paralyzed but Breloom had been hit with a solid attack and was looking hurt. Still, the advantage in this match had shifted to him with the status affliction.

"C'mon Loom, hit him where it hurts and knock that bug down with a Headbutt!"

As Loom rushed its opponent, Arthur called out frantically. "Damn, Megane Detect it!"

But the Dragonfly Pokemon was seized with Paralysis and struck down, flinching badly as it did. Its main asset was its speed and being paralyzed it could no longer zip around the battlefield like it was used to. Arthur cursed and recalled Yanmega to its Pokeball.

"Giving up already?" Hsu asked, feeling more cocky now that the first round had essentially been granted to him.

"Just warming up. A good trainer understands a bad situation, and kid you don't know how bad yours is."

"Oh shuttup and bring it on!"

"Fine, Herakles, show this punk what's what." Arthur pointed at Hsu as his Heracross stepped out from behind him, one of its clawed arms grabbing the other as it winded the arm up in preparation for battle.

"A Fighting Bug? Now I feel bad for your team, that Pokemon should be with a trainer who knows how to handle Fighting types!" Hsu boasted.

"Just watch, there's far more power in this Bug than just Fighting," Arthur said calmly. "For example... Aerial Ace!"

"N-" Hsu's cry was bit off as the Heracross rushed towards Loom at frightening speed before seemingly disappearing right in front of it. In the air above Loom's head, Herakles suddenly began to glow with light as it began to descend.

"No! Loom, Counter!" Hsu issued the command and Loom responded readily, getting ready to receive and return the attack. But it was not to be, as Herakles, engulfed in light, impacted with Loom there was soon only one Pokemon standing, as Loom fell over, unconscious and done. Hsu was in shock, but Herakles seemed nonchalant, wiping a "thumb" over its nonexistent nose and fixing an eye on Hsu.

This was too much for Hsu, who recalled the fainted Breloom back into its ball. "Fine, you've got a pretty decent Bug on your team. No surprise it's the Fighting type. But watch out cause I have..." Hsu's voice faded as he realized Breloom had been his most powerful Fighting Pokemon on his team. He floundered a moment, but was surprised when a motion to his side caught his attention. Lee, his Hitmonlee, had stepped up and was now warming up, doing kicks and stretches and looking completely unconcerned as it stepped onto the battlefield.

"Awesome! Now go Lee and show that Bug what we're-"

"Aerial Ace!"

A moment later and Lee was on the ground, unconscious like his compatriot. Hsu was beginning to feel numb.

"You felt bad for my team, wasn't it? Right?"

"Shut up!" Hsu issued back. "Ty, step up!" Hsu ordered his first Tyrogue forward as he recalled Lee to its Pokeball.

But thirty seconds later and he was doing something very similar, as the world seemed to fall away from him he was recalling the unconscious Ty, ordering Shin, his second Tyrogue, out while Arthur began to gloat more and more.

Thirty seconds again, and now Hsu was down to his first, most powerful, and most loyal Pokemon. But it wasn't a Fighting type.

"Damn you!" Hsu said, his voice a bit shrill with emotion. "Eve! Step up and end this!"

Eve, his female Flareon, his oldest and most loyal partner, complied quietly, stepping forth calmly and looking at the Pokemon, the Heracross, that had defeated so many of her friends. It delivered a dismissive look at her.

"Herakles, Earthqu-"

"Fire Fang!" And suddenly the Flareon was onto the Heracross before it could deliver the attack, fangs bristling with fire as it clamped down on the Bug's torso.

It flinched, badly.

"No!" Arthur said, realizing too late that Hsu's Flareon was in a class all its own compared to the rest of the trainer's team.

"Yes!" Hsu crowed. "One more time with Fire Fang!"

Eve dashed in and delivered the crowning blow to Herakles, sending the mighty stag-beetle Pokemon flying back, battered, unconscious and singed.

Arthur was now beginning to lose his cool, but swallowed down a particularly large portion of humility and settled himself as he recalled the unconscious Heracross. The wide grin on Hsu's face bugged him, but he rationally understood that one Pokemon couldn't beat five more, even if it was a fairly strong example and had a type advantage.

Type advantage.

Now it was Arthur's turn to smile, as he motioned one of his team out from behind him.

"Go on Drache, you can do this easily." Arthur beckoned his Vibrava to battle.

The literal Dragon Fly buzzed forward, looking somewhat smug as it did so. Hsu eyed it warily, but it looked like any other bug to him.

"That's all you've got, bugs? Looks like Eve is going to teach you guys a lesson in-"

"Shuttup."

"Grrr... Fire Fang, end this Eve!"

As Eve dashed forward, mouth glowing with Fire, Arthur smirked, as he was wont to do, and issued his command.

"Sand-Attack."

Drache's wings beat rapidly, sending a cloud of sand and loose material into Eve's eyes, she missed her target and skidded past, clawing at her watering eyes in an attempt to clear them up.

"Cheater!" Hsu protested.

Arthur ignored him, "Fly!"

Vibrava flew up into the sky, Hsu began to grouse again. "Cheater!"

"Shuttup."

"Grrr... get your head straight Eve!"

While the Flareon struggled, it was suddenly assaulted as Drache dived from the sky and onto Eve's back, knocking it into a tree. Drache then calmly fluttered, seemingly just waiting for an attack to come.

"Eve! Get up! Fire Fang!" Hsu's voice cracked with stress, but his Pokemon rose diligently, still calm and serene despite everything, and dashed forward, watering eyes fixed on the blurry target before her.

Her mouth gaped with and with fiery jaws she locked her teeth onto the Vibrava, which had seemed content to sit there and take the attack.

"Hah! Now the battles back in our favor! Follow up with ano-"

"Sand Tomb."

Drache was then seemingly surrounded by a wall of sand, and when it cleared the relatively uninjured Vibrava was fluttering by calmly, while Eve struggled faintly to remove herself from a large pile of sand, dirt and rock which had been extracted from the surrounding area.

"No! How!?" Hsu objected.

"Your first mistake was assuming that just because my Pokemon are bugs that they're all bug type." Arthur lectured smugly.

"What?" Hsu was puzzled.

"Drache here is a Vibrava, and while distinctly a bug, is not a bug type. He's a very naughty Ground and Dragon type, so your Fire attack was very ineffective against his typing. Meanwhile he's got the attacks that are strong against your Pokemon." Arthur smiled nastily, a look that Hsu was rapidly coming to hate.

"And now lets end it, hm? Go wild, Drache." Arthur allowed.

Drache complied with vicious fervor, piling more and more sand and rock upon the hapless Flareon, as it struggled more and more slowly as it was slowly consumed, a moment before its head was going to be consumed it let out a small, frightened squeak, the only noise it had made throughout the entire time it had battled.

"STOP!" Hsu said loudly, running forward and throwing himself into the attack, clawing at the tomb that was engulfing his beloved Pokemon.

"Drache, return." Arthur retrieved his Pokemon while Hsu freed Eve, cradling the Pokemon in his arms as he looked upon her with worry.

"I think I've made my point, the battle is mine today, now get the hell out of my forest." Arthur said as he turned around and began to walk away, the remaining members of his team walking with him.

"Wait!"

Arthur turned around slowly, curious. "Oh?"

Hsu was standing with tears in his eyes, the midday sun having turned to afternoon and had angled behind him a bit. Silhouetted by the light he looked a somber figure.

"You've beaten me today but I declare you my rival now, I will beat you someday to make up for this disgrace," Hsu said with emotion in his voice.

"Like I care kid, you're a million years too young to catch up to me," Arthur said dismissively.

"Then I'll get you in two million years! No matter how long it takes!" Hsu retorted.

Arthur turned back around and began walking away again. "Like I care, I'll crush you on that day like I did today."

"Wait!"

Arthur turned around, angry now. "What?!"

"Please..." Arthur was shocked for a moment as he saw the suddenly pleading look on Hsu's face, "Just one more thing, the closest Pokemon Center where is-"

Arthur turned back around and pointed off in a direction. "The closest center is that way. It also happens to be the Center farthest away from my Gym from here, and I don't wanna see you near there any time soon. Got it?"

Hsu didn't reply, he merely took a moment to retrieve his traveling pack and was off, tearing through the forest at high speed. The last Arthur saw of the teen was his sweat stained back disappearing between some trees.

"Really? A rival...?" Arthur said melodramatically to no one in particular. "What a moron." With that the Gym Leader returned to his trek out of the forest, a slightly pleased smirk on his face.

"I'd like to see that."


	10. Prologue Part 10

"Slowly the handsome young detective walked down the street, surveying the pastiche of clean living superimposed over the real filth and grime of the big city," The young man narrated to himself as he walked down the street, receiving unnoticed odd looks from fellow pedestrians. At his heels trotted a Growlithe, simply named "Ruff", an imaginative name that the man had coined when he was much, much younger. Jackson ("Call me Jack.") Daniels made his way along the sidewalk to the cafe where he was supposed to meet his partner in crime... so to speak. And despite the young man's... youth, he wore an old-fashioned style of dress, reminiscent of a time in American history when Private Dicks (that's detectives for you people who don't get it) had offices with eyes painted on the door and a bottle of scotch was always in a desk drawer. Coincidentally, Jack had some scotch in his pocket at the moment.

"The city smelled," he continued to narrate, oblivious. Ruff, at his feet, just shook his head as his partner continued on. "It stank of corruption and vice. Like an infected wound, it smelled of... cheese. And there were not enough anti-bodies in the system to fight back. That's where men like me come into play. We're like antiobiotics... we go in and clean out the infection so the wound can heal itself. Then we're off to be thrown into a medical waste container, to be taken care of and disposed of properly."

The cafe with the outdoor seating came into sight and Jack's monologue shifted track.

"I spotted her, I thought, as I came up to the cafe. Even this place though was corrupt, a festering pile of filth. The food was greasy and overpriced, never enough on your plate and the drinks were never filled fast enough. Service was a laugh," Jack continued on, sitting himself down at the table across from his partner even as a passing waiter gave the man a dirty look. "But at least this time the view was good. I let my eyes wander up and down her lovely body, settling for a few seconds on a precious patch of exposed skin, her cleavage inviting. Her panty-hose clung to her like-"

"JACK!" Isabella Sun yelled, startling the man out of his narration. He blinked, a bit red-eyed, a dozen times before he reached out to take her glass of water and took a couple cautious sips.

"... I was doing it again, huh?"

"Uh... yeah." Izzy's voice was humorless, she was clearly displeased with his conduct and showed it. How dare he show up to their meeting like this, still half-drunk and saying that-

"Sorry. I really am. I got into the scotch last night. Got a phone call yesterday, from the PD in Saffron. Buddy of mine, we had done some Academy work but actually stayed in touch since then... he... got hurt. So I crawled in a bottle of scotch and turned on every noir movie I had."

Izzy's expression softened but her voice was still disapproving, "And did it help you?"

Jack delivered her a winning smile as he removed his fedora and set it on the green steel patio table, "Not a whit. I feel miserable."

Izzy sighed. "Really Jack, if you ever need to talk..."

The man waved his hands politely, "Thanks, but no thanks. I'll leave the psychology stuff to you, you leave the self-destructive expressions of emotion to me."

Izzy was silent, but her expression spoke volumes. For a few moments there was a tense and uncomfortable silence between them, Ruff looked between the two worriedly.

"In fact," Jack said finally, reaching down to scratch Ruff behind the ears. "You could say last night was actually pretty... Ruff."

Jack's reward was a groan from Izzy as she raised a palm to her forehead in exasperation, but a small smile on her face told him he'd managed to ease her worries for the time being.

"So what's the word, miss partner of mine?" Jack asked as he waved a waiter over, the same one he'd managed to offend as he walked in.

"Well," Izzy started, pulling a manilla folder out of her stylish courier bag. Everything about the woman was stylish, in sharp contrast to Jack's antiquated look that said he was more a shopper of thrift stores that dealt in sixty year old fashions, Izzy was more of the modern working beauty, every facet controlled to express a beautiful, if impressive and intelligent, response in the people she dealt with. She looked years older in maturity than her twenty-two years of age, and if anything she exuded the aura of being the brains of the operation. Despite this she constantly deferred to Jack's experience and instinct, as well as his own sharply insightful mind.

"Here's what I've gathered so far on the local activity," She was referring to a series of major industrial accidents in the area that had been occuring over the past four months. Every few weeks a factory, plant, or facility was being destroyed in horrible ways. Local environmental activists cited that the facilities had all just built poorly and quickly and that they should all have been shut down years ago, but the company which owned them all protested by citing the fact they had never actually failed safety or environmental inspections. The major issue though was that every investigation had turned up nothing. Electrical failures, toxic waste disposal failures, more and more, but everything was related to spontaneous equipment failure and nothing could turn up obvious signs of foul play besides the large number of accidents occurring so quickly.

A large number of people had been hurt too, and now employees were afraid to go on work and on the verge of striking. The families of those who had died were demanding compensation, loudly, despite the fact that their families had been working at the facilities with full knowledge of the dangers inherent. Nothing looked good for the company, and without the out of a scapegoat like citing corporate espionage they were looking more and more doomed to bankruptcy and failure. What made it all worse was that the insurance company which had been covering the company had canceled their contracts after the third incident, effectively leaving the bill squarely in the company's hands after that date.

Still, the incidents had been curious enough for Jack and Izzy to come to the town a month before, and both had spent most of their time doing the mundane sort of investigation they knew how to do - interviewing employees, witnesses, and family members. Looking into public records, examining the sights of the accidents firsthand. And though they had turned up no more than the official investigations had, they saw enough to know there was more to it than met the eye. With that in mind Jack had asked Izzy to employ some of her assets (both in looks, demeanor, and Pokemon) to do some investigation on her own while he looked into some things on his own while exploiting his own talents (instincts, attitude, and Pokemon). That had been a week prior and now they were meeting up to compare notes.

"Well, it took a lot of digging," Izzy began as Jack ordered himself something to eat and drink after apologizing sincerely to the offended wait staff. "But I might have turned out a connection... besides the obvious fact that all the facilities were owned by the same corporation they are also the ONLY major corporation in this area. There's little to no competition here, and anything that tries to get started is quickly stamped out. They essentially have a monopoly, but the only reason the federal government doesn't get involved is because they're only in this small area, outside of here essentially no one cares. But there's a lot of people in the area who think that's wrong and aren't unhappy that this company might be going out soon."

"... despite the fact that for a long time there'll be a shortage of jobs and good in the industry until other companies fill the vacuum?" Jack asked.

Izzy shrugged, "Most people don't look at all the pieces in a puzzle. They see one name everywhere and think about how great it would be to have some more choices, and it gets to a point where they think that ideal is good enough for really bad things to happen."

"Hm... Anything else?"

"Besides that... Nothing concrete. I think we can rule out foul play from the local citizen's part, though."

"I concur, my own investigation came to the same conclusion. Oh thank you," Jack took a moment to thank server as a platter with a sandwich and fries appeared in front of him. He began to talk through bites. "However, I did notice something odd."

"What's that?"

"The times."

"The times?"

"The times." Jack took a large bite of his sandwich, chewed slowly, and swallowed, much to Izzy's annoyance. She wanted him to get on with it. "The times, and to an extent, the dates. You have a list of the incidents, correct?"

"Right here," She pulled a crisp piece of paper out of her bag and put it on the table.

"Now if you will, please examine those dates and times."

"Fine, fine. The 6th at 3:12, the 15th at 9:21, the 9th at 6:36, the 27th at 12:09, the 3rd at 6:15, the 21st at 3:27, the 12th at 9:45, and finally the 30th at 12:57. What's so strange here? Sure they all fall more or less at the same hours but that's been explained as being peak times of operation for many of these plants. There's no pattern or reason behind-"

"They're all multiples of three."

"... what?"

"I said that these are all multiples of 3. The 6th at 3:12? Multiples of three, the day, the hour, and the minute. Every other date and time is the same. The 15 at 9:21, the 9th at 9:36? Three, three, three. I believe in coincidence, but I don't believe in providence having a hardon for the number three."

Izzy shut her eyes, trying to grasp it all, as well as ignoring the last comment. "So what you're saying is that despite the fact that there's no evidence to support it besides this tenuous analysis of the dates and times... that there was foul play involved."

"Correct. You catch on quick, kid."

Izzy bristled a bit at the "kid" comment, but let it slide. "Any hard evidence besides this?"

"None at all, though I'm sure this guy isn't done yet. My guy tells me that, same as it told me there was something strange about the dates and times."

"Sure it wasn't indigestion?"

"I dunno, my stomach has been feeling a bit..." Jack paused for effect. "Ruff."

At hearing his name used in a second bad pun the Growlithe in question laid down and puts his paws over his head, hoping to shut out the bad stuff.

Izzy's eye twitched for a moment before she took a deep breath and calmed down. Truth be told, there was a lot to be said for Jack's gut instinct, it had proven that much to her in the short time she had known him already. Still, this looked to her more like coincidence than anything el-

A loud explosion a few miles away interrupted their conversation. Despite herself, Izzy looked at her fashionable, but functional, watch which showed date and time.

The 12. 12:15.

God. Damnit.

"Let's go!" Jack was on his feet, Ruff was ready too. Izzy took a moment to recover her documents before she was running off after Jack and Ruff, no mean feat in her one inch heels.

"Oh god damnit!"

Izzy yelled before pulling her heels off and sprinting after Jack and Ruff, catching up to them quickly much to their surprise.

"Uh... hi." Jack offered lamely.

"I swear to god, we'd better find the guy responsible for this or I am just going to tell this city to screw off!" Izzy growled out through gritted teeth. Jack was a little intimidated, but that feeling passed quickly as a look of determination crossed his face.

"Not a problem. We're close to the scene of the crime and with Ruff here we'll find the perpetrator, no problem."

Izzy didn't quite share his confidence.

Meanwhile, the perpetrator (for there was indeed one) slipped a hand inside a garishly colored lime-green suit jacket pocket and put the Pokeball away. He was almost amused by how easy it was to do the work in this town. Then again he had perfected his trade to an art form in most ways, but it was aided by the fact that were simply few, if any, obvious suspects in the area to pin blame on. Leave no fingerprints and let the victim hang themselves while bleeding to death, he said, was the best way to cover up a murder as a suicide. Jonas McDaniels smiled with twisted humor as he continued to watch the scene from the back of the crowd. The most obvious thing he could have done was run away, or even stroll. Someone leaving the scene of a major incident before the police had chased them off was the most obvious suspect, in his mind. Plus this allowed him to survey his handiwork.

The target this time had been a water purification plant. Almost ruefully easy. Thousands of gallons of raw sewage and sludge flowing in at any given time? What better use for his Muk? He had let it into the sewers with explicit directions on where to go and what to do some miles back, having given it a small digital watch to wear to keep it timed to the schedule. And it had performed admirably, Jonas admitted. His entire team had. And with this last target taken care of, the terms of the contract had been fulfilled and he was ready to collect his fee. After that, he said to himself, he would allow himself to treat his Pokemon to something nice to show them appreciation for the fine job they had done.

But before then, he still had to make the getaway.

To his right a man and a woman ran up, both panting for air, as if they had just run a marathon. The woman held her designer shoes in hand, her feet were obviously red from the dash. Between them a Growlithe stood, stalwart and fresh despite the run that exhausted his human compatriots.

"Do you... think we... made it...?" The woman asked between gasps of breath.

Jack stood up straight and surveyed the crowd, starting with Jonas, sweeping over the heads of the people splayed out before him, and sweeping back. The smell of raw sewage and fire, the screams of fear and anger and pain, it was all a suitable backdrop for his mood. Jack locked eyes with Jonas for just a moment, then he looked back down at Dizzy who was still studying her feet intently.

"C'mon Bella, get yourself together, we've gotta take a look around."

Izzy just glared, he KNEW she hated that name. She opened her mouth to say something but she caught the expression on his face, she paused with her mouth open.

"Don't stand around like that, you might swallow a fly." Jack said quietly as he slipped off around the edge of the crowd.

Izzy just growled and followed him, wincing with every step as she realized what she had just done to her feet. What had motivated her to do that again? Oh yeah, the earth shattering KABOOM.

She found jack a hundred feet later, standing in some shadows by a building and half hidden by a tree. But he wasn't looking at her when she walked up, still wincing, instead his gaze was fixed on the garishly dressed man.

"Just so you know, it actually WOULD be a step back for you in style to start dressing like that," Izzy said as she plopped down on teh grass at the foot of the tree, massaging her aching feet.

"He's the culprit," Jack said, with certainty. Izzy just frowned.

"And how do you know that?" She asked sweetly.

"Don't yet. Hunch, and... well I'll find out in a minute." Jack said finally.

"And how do you plan to find out?" Izzy asked, but feared the answer.

Absently, Jack reached inside his coat and pulled the scotch out, unscrewed the cap and took a tiny sip. "I'm going to ask him."

"WHAT?!" Izzy couldn't help herself. Jonas decided at that time to finally leave the scene, and Jack followed behind him, quietly tailing the man. Izzy was a hundred steps behind Jack, grumbling about her feet and unaware of the grass stains that now addorned her designer skirt that hugged her respectable tush.

Jonas took and abrupt turn into an alley, and Jack was right behind him. Jonas finally seemed to realize he was being followed only when Jack cleared his throat loudly.

"What the he-" Jonas wheeled around in surprise. "You're not going to try mugging me, are you?" He asked dangerously.

Jack just laughed, "No no, I don't want your wallet, unless it has the names of the people who hired you."

Jonas's voice grew even more dangerous, even as he feigned ignorance, "I don't follow."

"Oh sure you do," Jack insisted, smiling. "The people who hired you to sabotage all those facilities."

"I'm quite positive I don't know what you're talking about," Jonas said, "Now if you don't get out of my way I'll call the poli-"

"Don't worry about the police, I'm kinda like one anyways," Jack said with a grin. Izzy stepped into the alleyway behind him suddenly, grimacing at the wet and dank conditions inside. Wisely, she put her heels back on, even as the hard leather constricted her foot she was glad for the protection as she stepped up to stand next to Jack.

"But yeah, here's a question for you, if you don't mind answering," Jack said, reaching into his coat. "Does this brand look familiar to you?" He held the bottle of scotch up by accident, "Oh pardon me, that's for my condition. Here we are." Jack held up a blue bottle.

Jonas looked at the bottle in curiosity for a moment before his eyes widened in surprised and recognition.

"What is tha-?" Izzy asked before she was cut off by Jack tossing her the bottle. She barely caught it, and she turned it around in her hands to read the label. "Shadow Moon Brand Aftershave Lotion?" She asked quizzically, at a loss.

"Yep, Shadow Moon Brand Aftershave Lotion," Jack said confidently. "It turns out it's actually quite a premier item, or at the very least it was a special order. I spent most of the last week tracking down the scent through every drug store and boutique in the city. Luckily, Ruff here has quite the connousieur's nose." At that recognition the Growlithe barked happily.

"But ho-"

"Ruff noticed something at every incident, there was one peculiar smell, a constant, even if horribly faded at the scenes of the earliest incidents. It took me a while to understand, and after that we narrowed it down to what it could be, then narrowed it down even further. The big break, so to speak, was a little specialty store at the edge of town that had a mail order catalog with scent samples. One rush delivery later and that," Jack pointed at the bottle in Izzy's hands. "Is my little piece of daming evidence."

Izzy suddenly grew irate, "And you didn't share this lead with me why?!"

Jack just shrugged, "Wasn't a lead, more of a hunch than anything else."

Izzy just hissed but kept her mouth shut. She probably would have berated him for something so tenuous, or at least dismissed it herself personally leaving him to work on it, but here he had, once again, found a connection where no one else could.

"You still don't have anything resembling concrete evidence," Jonas objected, looking cool with his hands in his pocket and a relaxed stance but inside he was fuming.

"No. You are in fact correct. However, I do have authority to arrest someone based on such circumstantial evidence, and from there the case could be built. For example I'd wager that if we were to interview witnesses again they would probably remember a badly dressed man hanging around the crowd after each incident," The unsaid joke was that Jack could be such a badly dressed man. "I'd also lay good odds that in that coat of yours are the very tools of sabotage - your Pokemon. That sound like solid enough evidence?"

Jonas burst into laughter, "You've got it all figured out huh? Damn, I knew this contract was unreasonable but I still thought I had it pretty well executed. Not even a suspicion till a pair of cowboys ride into town to fix everything." At that Jack just smiled.

"Okay," Izzy said, confident now that the man in front of them was indeed the perpetrator, "What was the deal with the dates and times? Why the multiple of three? Is that some obsession of yours?"

Jonas now looked genuinely confused, "Pardon me?"

Izzy looked incredulous, "You mean you didn't do that intentionally?!" She shrieked.

Jonas seemed lost in thought for a moment as he reviewed the various jobs he'd done in the past four months, a small smile of wonder grew on his face, "Well damn, how about that for a coincidence?"

Jack just shrugged, "I guess I was wrong about that much." Izzy just groaned and cupped her face in her palms.

"So, now what?" Jonas asked cheerily.

Jack was equally cheery, "I take your ass in and find out who you're working for then lock them up forever."

"Uh huh, that's cute," Jonas replied. "But I have a better idea."

With that his jacket flew open and a Pokeball came out and erupted into the form of a Raichu, Jack could see that the pocket's Jonas's coat had no bottoms so he could reach in and get a Pokeball surreptitiously if the need arose.

"Flash!" The Raichu turned into a ball of incandescent light that caused Izzy and Jack to clutch at their eyes despite themselves. Even after the light faded there were still flashing spots in front of Jack's eyes, and it took him another moment to clear those. When he did he discovered Jonas was nowhere to be found, but a noise above him caused his eyes to dart to the top of a ladder leading to the roof of one of the buildings, and he saw a bright neon orange pant leg disappear over the ledge.

"He went up!" Jack yelled, reaching inside his coat and pulling out a black and blue Great ball. "Gimme some eyes up there!" he commanded as Noctowl was freed and soared into the sky.

Jack went for the ladder, taking it two rungs at a time. Izzy was behind him, moving more slowly as she was still trying to get the spots out of her eyes. A noise like an electrical discharge and a strangled off squawk greeted Jack as he got to the top of the ladder, and was greeted with the sight of Noctowl plummeting from the sky thanks to an electrical attack from the Raichu. He cursed and retrieved his Pokemon a second before it slammed into the rooftop. Then he was off the ladder and sprinting towards where he thought he saw the attack originate. On the street below Ruff followed him, using his sensitive nose and ears to keep track even when he lost sight of Jack. Izzy was shakily following, muttering something about work-study programs and psychos.

At the end of the building he could see his quarry, on the next rooftop and running. The gap was small, but the drop was long. Jack hesitated only a moment, taking a few steps back before running forward and leaping, placing a hand protectively on his hat. When Izzy got to the gap she immediately halted, looked down, and took a few steps back muttering before stopping and slapping herself on the forehead.

"Farfetch'd, go help him!" She reached into her ever-present bag and pulled out the Pokeball, releasing the the Duck Pokemon to go aid her partner. It flapped and fluttered a moment before it caught up to him, gliding comfortably with leek clutched protectively in its bill. At the end of the roof Jonas had suddenly stopped and was messing around with some billboard advertisement planted on the rooftop. The corporate mercenary stiffened as he heard the noise of gravel being shuffled on the rooftop and he turned and looked at his persistent pursuer.

Then he sighed, "Oh man. Theodore, quick slacking off would ya?"

With that he busied himself with whatever it was he was doing while Farfetch'd suddenly stopped in midair like it had hit a brick wall. Jack came to a skidding halt at the occurrence before he was knocked off his feet by some invisible force. A moment later he spied a darkening silhouette that started with a mad grin and demon eyes and solidified till the teeth and eyes were worn by a shadowy form.

"Gengar." It said politely, bowing, before it flipped forward and stuck out a longue, nasty tongue and licked Jack up and down his face, sending a freezing chill down his spine. He suddenly found he couldn't move. Then the Ghost Pokemon walked over to the struggling Farfetch'd, looked at it curiously, then delivered a brutal kick to it that sent it flying back and into an Air Conditioner to make sure it wouldn't try getting up. Then the Gengar faded away, laughing viciously the entire time.

"Ah, yes." Jonas said as he managed to remove the large 3d plastic bar of soap from the billboard. He pressed a button on it and a few parts of it fell off until all that was left was a harness, some nozzles, and on top of it was a white crash helmet. Jonas smiled and pulled the helmet on, taking time to make sure it was comfortably secure. Then he pulled the entire thing onto his back and snapped the harness properly.

"Theodore, we're leaving," Jonas finally said, and the Gengar came into being near his feet. He took a Pokeball out and retrieved it, for some reason Jack noted that the Pokeball was as garishly colored as the man's clothes. Jonas just grinned, even while Izzy materialized into view while holding her Abra and Ruff in her arms.

"Oh my, looks like perfect timing. Love to stay and chat and all that, but I must be going," Jonas said, laughing. "Ciao."

And with that he pressed a button and the nozzles on the bottom of the soap-bar backpack, the rocket fuel kicked in and then the man was speeding off into the distance till at last he disappeared out of sight. There was silence for a moment, then Jack slowly rose to his feet, rubbing his stiff limbs as the paralysis wore off. Both he, Izzy, Abra and Ruff just stared into the distance.

"Well," Jack finally said. Izzy groaned, she knew already. "I guess he made a bclean/b getaway," Jack punctuated this statement by pulling a pair of sunglasses out of his coat and putting them on.

(YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)


	11. Prologue Part 11

"Jeeperth, where'd the road go?" The young teenager mused as she pushed her way through the underbrush, somehow having become lost in a dense forest after wandering off the road. The warm weather and densely packed foliage meant it was humid and stifling, and Ciel found herself panting and sweating and losing energy rapidly. "Thith ith exathperating..." She wheezed.

"Gah, I can't take thith anymore!" She declared loudly. "Thwordbreaker! Get me outta here!" With that Ciel released her Scyther from its Pokeball, the green mantis-like Pokemon deploying quickly, using its long, razor-sharp blades to start clearing a path for the girl.

"Gee thankth Thwordbreaker, so how long till we get outta here?" Ciel asked her Pokemon.

The Scyther stopped its path-clearing duty and turned around to look at the girl for a moment before shrugging and going back to work. Ciel just sighed and pulled a bottle of water out of her pack, taking a large sip out of it and deciding she couldn't hold it against her Pokemon. He was just as lost as she was, after all, and she had been the one to leave the beaten trail, not to mention it was a lot easier to get around now that the path was being cleared for her.

"It'th timeth like thith I with I had taught Theraphim how to Teleport." Ciel mused while she walked a few steps behind her Scyther. A small part of her mind wonder if she shouldn't rename him Lawnmower with how good a job he was doing, but Ciel decided the Pokemon probably appreciated the tougher-sounding name of Swordbreaker.

After a few moments they entered a clearer part of the forest, the sky was clearly visible above and the breeze moved more freely throughout.

"Whoo, finally, thank goodneth." Ciel said with relief. "Thwordbreaker, get thome retht. I'll send Dyna up above to thcout the area."

The Scyther silently nodded and kneeled, looking all the world like a Samurai kneeling before his feudal lord. Dyna, Ciel's Starly, bounced out of its Pokeball with a flutter of its wings and a cute chip.

"Dyna, get up and take a look around."

The Starly nodded and fluttered off into the air, flying up through the gap in the trees and starting to circle the area, flying higher and higher. The flying Pokemon was gone for a few minutes before it came back, fluttering back down to earth and growing larger until it finally alighted on the ground in front of Ciel.

"Tho, where'th the exit?" Ciel asked with a slightly worried smile on her face.

"Well, I might be able to point you in the right direction..." A voice behind Ciel startled her, and she wheeled around in surprise before she even realized she had done so.

Leaning against a tree no more than fifteen feet away from her stood a man. Though he looked like he was barely out of his teens (if that), the man carried himself in a manner befitting a person who thought they had seen and knew it all. He was lanky and tall, and his short blonde hair didn't seem tamed by gel or mousse but still inexplicably styled perfectly. The man wore what appeared to be the Armani version of hiking clothes and boots, with a pair of immaculate khaki cargo pants, a cream-colored long-sleeve button-down shirt with the cuffs and top three buttons left undone while it was tucked in and belted with a dark golden leather belt. His hiking boots shone like the sun, and on his head Ciel could see a pair of Ray-Bans, perched on his temple. In contrast, Ciel in her cute skirt and blouse with hiking boots felt positively... underdressed.

"... for a battle." The man finished with a smirk, stepping forward so confidently that Ciel couldn't help but take a rapid step back, almost treading on Dyna as she did so. Swordbreaker stood up in alarm, but the man just held his hands up and smiled, cockily though.

"Whoah whoah, just give me a battle and win and I'll lead you out of here. Simple as that, really."

"... really?" Ciel asked cautiously, she couldn't believe her luck.

"Really, but if I win... you have to hand over half of all the money you have." The man smirked, this time it looked positively nasty.

"What!? That'th not fair at all!" Ciel protested.

"What isn't fair?" The man took another step forward and once again Ciel couldn't help but take a step back. This time Swordbreaker rushed forward to interpose himself between the man and Ciel.

The man smiled, but it was as nasty as his smirk had been, showing no visible sign of feeling threatened even by the mantis with the two-foot razors for arms.

"It's a simple wager. Your money wont do you any good lost in the forest right? So if you lose you're not any worse than you were before and if you win... you get out with all your money. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself."

Ciel swallowed, suddenly very nervous but unable to see any alternative. "O- Okay, if you win then I'll-"

"Great!" The man cut her off. "Although I have been rude, please forgive me."

Ciel blinked, the man might not be as bad as she thought. "Well it'th o-"

"Chattering away all this time without introducing myself," The man continued on, cutting her off again. "My name is Carlos Norris, a name everyone will remember."

Ciel almost began to cry, the man was so terrible. Still if now was the time for introductions... "My nameth Thi-"

"Don't care~" Carlos cut her off in a sing-song voice, twirling a Pokeball on his finger as he spoke before he threw the ball out, releasing a vicious looking Scizor.

"A Thizor! In that cathe, go Thwordbreaker!" Ciel commanded her Scyther.

Carlos just yawned, "Slash."

Ciel vainly tried to order her Pokemon to retaliate "Thwordbreak use-"

But it was too late, her Pokemon was on the ground bleeding before she could finish her sentence. Literally bleeding, the Scizor had held little back.

"No!" Tears were in Ciel's eyes.

"Call him back already and send your next out," There was a hard edge in Carlos's voice now, and Ciel realized that if the man had wanted to he could have simply taken her money and whatever he wanted and left her.

Choking back tears Ciel recalled Swordbreaker to his ball, realizing that he would need serious care soon. She didn't want to let this terrible man harm the rest of her Pokemon yet she also knew that if she tried to give up something bad would happen.

Looking behind her, Ciel gave Dyna a pathetic, sad look that spoke volumes. Dyna just bravely stepped forward, having witnessed the entire scene and knowing what would happen, but stepping forward nonetheless. Ciel's heart swelled even as more tears flowed.

"Dyna uthe Quick Attack!" Ciel commanded quickly before her opponent could react.

"Bullet Punch."

The Starly's Quick Attack was defeated by the rapid placement of the Scizor large metallic claw in its face. There was a simultaneous crunch and wet, soft noise that Ciel heard all too clearly and once again she was staring at the image of another one of her Pokemon seriously injured before her. Now she was weeping, almost sobbing as she recalled her Pokemon and sent the next out.

Seraphim, her Ralts. Arcflare, her Charmander. Maverick the Staryu. Far too soon her entire 5-Pokemon team were bleeding and broken in their Pokeballs and Ciel was sobbing, staring down at her feet as the horrible man named Carlos stood before her expectantly, his demonic Scizor standing behind him, ready for his command.

Despite the man's golden appearance, she decided, he was pure dark.

Sniffling she slowly began to reach in her pack to get her preciously scant funds out. Her money was precious and she wasn't much of a battler, her family didn't have much to give her which was part of the reason why she decided to undergo her journey. This was food, supplies, this was the cost of Pokemon center fees. Oh god the Pokemon Center, would she have enough to save her Pokemon? She would, she wouldn't eat for a month if she had to. She'd save them... but she still had to get out of the forest and the man wouldn't show her since she had lost!

The thoughts swirled around in her head like a maelstrom. She had almost placed the money in his hand, Carlos having only extended his hands shortly before him in a token gesture of reaching out forcing her to extend herself to put the money in his hands without having to get close to him, when a loud crashing noise startled them both, causing her to jump back and protectively clutch herself, consequently removing the money from his grasp and putting distance between them. As one, Carlos and Ciel turned to locate the source of the noise.

There, stepping from the woods was another man, flanked on both sides by large Pokemon. Behind him a fallen tree could be seen, whorls of dust and debris still hung in the air from its impact. The man was smiling, but had a look of relief on his face, on either side of him was a Dragonite and a Tyranitar, both of the large Pokemon holding large piles of wood in their arms and across their backs in bundles.

"Wow, that was almost close. I tell you Orestes, you gotta watch where you're going, you could knock a mountain over if you got mad and that poor tree didn't stand a chance!" The man laughed, looking at the suddenly-sheepish Tyranitar called Orestes. The Pokemon began to grumble what sounded like a reply to the man's claims, but he just waved it off.

"I know, I know. It was an accident and I think that tree looked weak anyways. Still, it's a good lesson and we should be glad no one got hurt, right Ourania?" At this address the Dragonite smiled brightly and nodded, the Tyranitar looked reassured by this and brightened up.

All told, the scene was quite surreal.

"As long as we remember this place we'll have some good firewood available in the future when we camp out here..." The man finally noticed Carlos and Ciel. The smile never left his face, but grew brighter in fact. It dimmed a bit when he looked more closely at the two, however.

"Having fun...?" He asked cautiously.

"Just collecting on a small wager," Carlos replied cheerily, but cautious himself. The looks of the two Pokemon with the man unsettled him, they looked strong and confident, and the fact they flanked the man the way they did just... made him nervous.

"Oh a bet, huh? Mind if I ask what the nature of the bet was?"

Carlos just smiled, "I'm afraid that might be prying too fa-"

"He wath gonna lead me out of here if I won the battle," Ciel broke in. Carlos's head snapped to the side to look at her with a furious gaze. She ignored him as best she could. "If I lotht, I had to give him half my money."

"And he wouldn't lead you out?" The man was stepping close to them now, and his looked inquisitive.

"Nope."

"So if you won he led you out of here, and if you lost he takes half your money and leaves you here?" The man asked, shaking his head. "That... sounds a lot like something... hm what could it be?"

Behind him the Dragonite, Ourania, made a noise. The man just shook his head, seemingly still hard at work thinking. "No. No. Definitely not that." Then Orestes, the Tyranitar grumbled something and the man snapped his fingers in triumph.

"Ah! That was it! Extortion!" The man smiled cheerfully as he turned to face Carlos specifically. "You were extorting this little girl!"

Carlos swallowed, suddenly aware of scrutiny, the sensation of something small and pathetic underneath the penetrating gaze of something greater than him. He bowed suddenly, smiling ingratiatingly, before lifting his head up suddenly.

"It seems that I must be departing rather rapidly now," Carlos began, backing away slowly. He was downright terrified of the man now, for reasons he couldn't quite explain. Perhaps it was the two powerful Pokemon who were with him, or the man's own, seemingly unnatural, easy-going attitude with which he addressed things, or perhaps it was just the fact the man made it his business to interrupt Carlos's business, but he wanted nothing more to do with the girl any more. "I bid you adieu."

With that, Carlos slipped away into the forest, his Scizor hovering behind him protectively as he made a quick, but unhurried (so as to retain a semblance of dignity) flight through the woods.

Ciel sniffled and looked at the man, nervous herself. For his part, the man just smiled at her softly and scratched the back of his head.

"Hey now are you okay? Don't worry I'll lead you out of the forest tomorrow but it's going to be dark in a few hours and it'll take us a while to get out of here. Sheesh... you really did a number on yourself, huh?" The man referred to the scratches and stains that Ciel had acquired throughout the day.

Ciel just sniffled some more and stared at her feet. Now it was the man's turn to feel nervous. He scratched the back of his leg with one foot while he bit his lip and looked back to his Pokemon for help. They offered none, at a loss themselves.

"Hey, what's wrong? Don't be scared... look, my names Marcus. I promise I'm not gonna do anything bad, okay? I'll get you out of her safe, I really mean it. So don't cry, okay?"

Ciel sniffled and shook her head. Marcus grimaced.

"C'mon kid, what's wrong?"

Ciel sniffled some more and lifted her head suddenly to lock gazes with Marcus.

"M- My Pokemon... they're all hurt!" Ciel managed to choke out. Marcus's expression instantly turned sympathetic.

"It's okay, it's okay," He assured her. "I've got plenty of stuff to get them patched up. C'mon, my camp isn't far."

Marcus held his hand out to Ciel who, after a moment eyeing it cautiously, placed her hand in his softly and allowed herself to be led. Marcus smiled in satisfaction and with a nod to his Pokemon they took off through the forest on a barely noticeable path.

It took them nearly twenty minutes of walking, throughout which Marcus never let go of Ciel's hand but held it softly, giving her the chance to remove her hand from his if she so wanted. But the emotionally shell-shocked trainer never made an effort to retract her hand and he made no effort to tighten his grip. By the time they reached camp, though, Ciel had managed to recover herself emotionally to some degree. She was no longer quite in shock as she had been before, so she was able to note details about the location the man chose to call camp.

Most obvious was the broad, swiftly flowing river that ran next to it. The water looked clean and fresh, and was clear enough to see the rocky riverbed some distance below the surface. In the water a Gyarados swam contentedly, looking almost... carefree. From the rocky shore of the river water and stone met grass in the clearing the man had chosen to pitch camp. In the center of the camp was a large circle of rocks surrounding a large pile of ash and charred wood, and with its back to the forest opposite the path was a positively massive canvas tent. There was also a gas-powered camp stove, a collapsing chair, several large coolers stacked on top of each other, and what looked like a wash basin filled with dishes and soapy water. A Lucario had its hands in the water was scrubbing a large pot and several bowls of various size. A Gardevoir and a Houndoom, nestled comfortably against each other and leaning against the same large tree trunk, seemed to be napping happily.

It look peaceful and content and warm, all of which were things that encouraged Ciel to relax some more. Marcus released her hand and pointed to the firepit.

"Orestes, Ourania, dump the wood there please and start setting the fire up for tonite."

The two large Pokemon shuffled off to fulfill his request while Marcus disappeared into the tent for a moment, returning a second later with a large canvas pack. Slung over a shoulder and a second camp chair in his other hand. With a smile he motioned Ciel over to him as he set the chair down next to his own and opened the pack up, revealing a large stockpile of first aid materials.

"I come pretty prepared. We like to take long trips out here fairly often so I always make sure I have more than I think I might need. Comes in handy more often than it should, really." Marcus explained as Ciel took a seat. "Call your Pokemon out and we'll get them fixed up. Oi, Corey!"

At the shout the Gardevoir's eyes blinked open, and yawning she stood up and walked over to them.

"This is Terspsichore, but I call her Corey for short. She's pretty good at this stuff so she'll help out, okay?"

Ciel nodded slowly. Marcus just smiled.

"Oh c'mon now, say something. This is gonna feel like talking to a wall soon enough. We'll get your Pokemon patched up and get something to eat for you and them, then tomorrow we'll get to a Pokemon Center or the next best thing, depending. For now, Corey will help you get your Pokemon together while I start dinner."

Ciel nodded, "Th- thank you thir..."

Marcus smiled brightly, "Oh come on, don't sir me. Thanks is fine though, you're welcome."

Marcus got up and went over to the Lucario, "Hey Bellona, you finished up over there?" As the man walked over to the Pokemon in question, Ciel took a moment to appraise her saviour.

He was probably twenty years older than Ciel herself, mid-thirties or so. His skin was tan and rough-looking from days spent outside. He wore a dirty and smudged gray sleeveless muscle shirt soaked in sweat and a pair of ratty looking cutoff jeans. On his feet were a pair of sturdy looking hiking shoes. His dark brown hair was shaggy, and he had a couple days growth of hair on his face. But his smile was bright, and his dark blue eyes twinkled pleasantly. His face looked hard and rough, and Ciel was still a bit frightened but for those eyes and that smile.

She shook her head, cleared it of thought. Took a deep breath, then focused on the task at hand. Terspsichore, shortened to Corey, placed a gentle hand on Ciel's own and smiled warmly. Ciel was a surprised by everything that had transpired so far, but she had to remember her priorities. Shaking her head once more, she set herself to the task at hand - calling out her Pokemon one by one so she could treat their wounds and restore a bit of their lost health. Marcus's store of sprays and bandages was large, but the wounds were serious. Carlos had his Scizor spare nothing in battle, and it was evident in the red wounds that Ciel stoicly cleaned and bound. Next to her, Terpsichore was a calming presence, gently aiding in the tasks and guiding Ciel when she became lost. The pair quickly lapsed into what was almost a trance; Ciel would call forth a Pokemon after tending to one, then with Corey's help she would methodically clean, disinfect, and then bind the wounds with sterile bandages. When one Pokemon was done she let them rest outside of their Ball before moving on to the next.

While Ciel became lost in her work, Marcus began the process of cooking dinner, aided by Bellona the Lucario he began to slice vegetables and prepare the ingredients. At the firepit, Orestes and Ourania had finished stacking wood for the dinner fire, a quick glance from Marcus confirmed the state of the pit.

"Perfect," Marcus whistled loudly to gain the attention of the dozing Houndoom. "Hey Dante, get the fire going please?"

The Houndoom slowly roused itself, yawning widely as it strolled over to the pit, and with a casual burp ignited the bundle of cut and dried wood, quickly getting a cooking fire going. Its job finished, the lazy Houndoom returned to its shady spot under the tree and went back to sleep.

Soon afterwards a delicious smell wafted from the large pots set around the fire, although if one were to describe the pots as being "cauldrons" the wouldn't be entirely inaccurate. Several of Marcus's Pokemon had large appetites, and now he was feeding double the number he was used to. The challenge, however, only excited him.

Over an hour later Ciel was finished, sweat poured down her brow and she was starting to shake but a reassuring pat from Corey settled her nerves. She smiled weakly at Corey, then looked at her Pokemon, all of them resting but still visibly in pain, despite the medicines and dressings she had administered to them. Still, they were stabilized and looking far healthier than they had been prior. Suddenly a plate of hot food was in front of her.

Ciel's eyes trailed up the arm till she was looking up at the smiling Marcus. "Eat," he said, gesturing for her to take the plate from him. "It's just camp stew, but it's hot and full of nutrition. You start eating and I'll pour some off for your Pokemon."

Ciel took the plate gratefully, noting that it was a milky, watery mix of broth, rice, vegetables, and large chunks of tofu. Still, it was warm, and as she took a careful sip of it from her spoon she noted it was good. Not amazing, not bad, just good. Solid food that anyone could enjoy. A moment later a large cup of cool tea was placed in front of Ciel, and she took that gratefully as well. Then pans and plates and bowls and other containers full of the stew were set in front of her Pokemon, who ate hungrily, but weakly. Marcus took a moment to give each one of Ciel's Pokemon a reassuring pet before moving to the next. Behind him came Bellona and Ourania, setting down bowls of cool water for the Pokemon to drink. Only after Marcus and his team had made sure that Ciel and her Pokemon were taken care of did they sit down to eat, chatting quietly near the river so the Gyarados could eat from its massive bowl and not have to leave the comfort of the water.

The young girl could scarcely believe the day's events, but as the food warmed her belly and the emotional and physical exhaustion caught up to her she found herself drifting off to sleep. She struggled in vain to keep her eyelids open, the world blurred around her. Suddenly she was aware of something soft and warm brushing up against her, and despite herself Ciel leaned into it and sighed, curling up on the ground and resting her head on Dante, the Houndoom, who had noticed her weariness and volunteered himself as a pillow even as he laid his head back down to resume his napping.

Over by the river Marcus smiled at the sight, before returning to his own plate of food, surrounded by his team of friends who were all eating slowly, or as slowly as a Gyarados can, what with its mouth being capable of intaking gallons and gallons of food in single bites.

"Tough day for the kid, but the kid might be all the tougher for it," Marcus observed as he slurped another spoonful of the stew. It wasn't his best work... but it wasn't off by that much either. To his right sat Ourania and on his left was Orestes. Both nodded sagely and mimicked his actions closely, though they simply lifted the plates of stew to their mouths and slurped it directly from there. Terpsichore was dainty, opting to use a spoon herself, while Triton supplemeted his bucketfuls of broth with fresh fish he had snagged in the river. Bellona, for her part, nursed a bowl of stew and fretted over the addtional dishes that would have to be done later.

A comfortable silence then reigned, Marcus had been with his party long enough where silence wasn't awkward but appreciable at times. Soon everyone had finished their dinner, and cleanup began. Bellona made a face at the stack of dishes till Terpsichore stepped up to help her, the two humanoid Pokemon set to work scrubbing the dinner plates while Marcus tended the fire and began to dry and put the dishes away.

It was while Marcus was putting away the massive pot (slash cauldron) that he had used to cook dinner in that a beckoning roar from Triton alerted him. Even as the rest of his team looked to see what the matter was (Dante raising his head sleepily and scanning the forest - the opposite direction of the river and Triton), Marcus rushed to the river to see what the issue was.

Triton was already rapidly swimming upstream, towards something small and white, bobbing up and down in the water. Marcus tried to make out what the object was, but it was only when Triton was swimming back towards the camp at top speed with the thing clutched tenderly in its jaws that Marcus made enough details out to panic.

"Oh god, Bellona get the first aid kit, Corey grab blankets, Ourania and Orestes make sure that fire is going well!" Marcus waded into the river as Triton delivered the item into his arms... a young girl. She was pale and cold, and Marcus was worried that she wasn't breathing. As his team rushed to perform their duties Marcus cradled the girl in his arms and waded out of the river, Triton following behind worriedly, slithering onto the bank besides the man.

The commotion being raised woke Ciel and Dante, and the two sleepily looked around the camp to discover the source of the racket.

What they found was Marcus with his back to them, leaning over something near the fire as his Pokemon formed a worried half-circle around him. Sensing the severity of the situation, both crept close to the group. Ciel peered past a kneeling Bellona while Dante pushed past Terpsichore to nuzzle Marcus reassuringly. Marcus smiled and petted Dante in response, but the figure before him kept his spirits low.

What Ciel saw was a young girl, someone smaller and younger than her (and she wasn't that big for her age either). She had dark, tousled damp hair. It could have been dark brown or dark blonde but the poor light and the fact it was still damp prevented her from identifying it fully. She was very slender, and very pale. For a second Ciel was worried she was dead, but then a faint whisper of breath and a slight rising and falling of the girl's chest and stomach informed her of the fact she was still alive, albeit very weak. She was also very, very naked, Ciel suddenly realized, covered only by a blanket. Though the girl was alive and breathing, Marcus's look of worry belied something.

"What'th... no who ith thhe?" Ciel queried, finally.

"No clue, she washed down the river. She had swallowed a lot of water but was still breathing, a miracle really. No clothes, beaten up bad enough I think she washed in at the rapids upstream. A god damn miracle..."

Marcus just shook his head and laughed bitterly. "She's bandaged up, and she's breathing but I need to get her to a hospital. It's too late tonite to trek through the forest, so we'll set out at daybreak." Marcus gave Ciel a meaningful look.

"Can I count on your help tomorrow?"

Ciel was silent for a moment. She wasn't sure what he might ask, and her own Pokemon were still injured. Yet the man had freely offered her aid and food, and this girl needed help. It didn't take her long to reach a decision.

"Thertainly."


	12. Prologue Part 12

The middle-aged man squinted at a screen intently, a small glimmer of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. His thick, coke-bottle glasses were perched high up on his head, a few inches ahead of a small bald patch he vehemently denied having amidst the forest of black hair flecked with gray on his scalp. Before him, the monitor displayed the intensely magnified results of the sample he had been examining. Doctor Leon Montgomery was a sagging middle-aged man with a good disposition but a rather high estimation of himself (he fancied himself a substitute member of the Elite 4 after he received a reply to his letter to them offering his services reading: "We'll call you if we need anything"). Still, he was good at what he did, and though his lab was small it was productive, despite being staffed only by himself and a young assistant, he produced startling results, at least in his own opinion, despite having to rely upon data and samples donated to his labs by other, larger labs for most of his research materials. Despite this, his assistant had procured unusual samples on his own explorations to areas that Montgomery had deduced would net results. The sample in the electron microscope was one of those discovered by his assistant.

A door opened behind the good doctor, and the sound of soft footsteps informed him that his assistant was approaching. When they stopped right behind him Leon turned around and looked at the young teenager.

His name was Tobias Uno and he was fifteen. Though he hailed from a town far from the professor's lab, he had been "loaned out" from the lab at his hometown to assist Montgomery in his research. He couldn't complain.. much. The work certainly interested him and besides the doctor's inflated ego he was actually quite a brilliant person in his own rights. Still, there were times he missed his hometown and wished he had more time off to visit, and certainly wished he didn't live quite so far away with a creepy old man in his mid-forties.

Ah well. Such was life.

"I've got the latest package from Professor Oak, doctor." Toby held up a small box wrapped in brown paper. Montgomery's face broke into a wide grin as he eagerly took the package and tore the wrapping off it, revealing a cardboard box which he didn't hesitate in ripping open. Inside, wrapped up in multiple layers of stiff packing paper was a small, thumbnail sized fragment of what looked to be some sort of fossil.

"Amazing..." Leon breathed out in rapt fascination. Toby fidgeted, a bit nervous. The doctor didn't like being disturbed at moments like this but he could also stare at something like the fossil for an hour before doing anything. The tall, bespectacled, and mostly unremarkable, skinny, blue-eyed, brown-haired teen cleared his throat softly, gently bringing the professor back to reality.

"Oh yes, good work, thank you Tobias." The good doctor turned back to direct his attention to his workstation, the sample in the electron microscope forgotten as he appraised the fossil. Toby sighed in relief as he exited the lab and returned to this normal station in the sample library where he was tasked with the meticulous and seemingly unending process of cataloging all the samples the professor had acquired in his years of research - no simple task given that the professor had cataloged few himself and left most of them sitting on one of the seemingly endless rows of shelves in the sample library with only a few notes given to when and where the samples had been acquired. It was now Toby's task to enter the samples into a computer database, store them according to type of sample and date retrieved (with cross-referencing for location obtained), as well as making sure the database included a short, but descriptive, paragraph detailing what the sample specifically consisted of. In short, it was a task sent from hell but to the boy's credit he stoicly endured and had made considerable progress in the past few months between retrieval expeditions. He had long since given up hope on the doctor assisting him in the endeavor - not that he doubted the older man would help him if asked but he doubted the actual amount of real help the man could offer in such an organized and detail oriented task. He was a good theorist and researcher, and could organize his thoughts and record them in a professional manner when pressed, but his personality didn't suit such meticulously organized tasks such as this.

"I need a vacation," Toby moaned. While most kids his age had something resembling a social life he had none. And despite being incredibly socially awkward, he still missed human contact with peers his own age. Sometimes. He loved some aspects of his job and felt that it was, in many ways, an enviable position to hold but there was only so much of an enviable position a person could take before they went stir-crazy!

Toby spent a further half hour working before he decided it was prudent to take a break - for his own sanity. After grabbing a can of soda from a small refrigerator in the room he sat down at his desk and propped his feet up, letting out a deep sigh before opening the drink and taking a long sip off it. Delicious.

Peace and quiet reigned supreme for a short while, as Toby collected his thoughts, before the sound of knocking interrupted his moment. Confusion replaced contentment, as he, ever so reluctantly, rose from his resting position and exited the room and walked up to the large metal door that kept the outside world separate from the interior of the lab. Toby reached a hand out to the handle as the knocking sounded again, and some uneasy feeling caused him to hesitate just a moment.

Toby shook the feeling off. What reason did he have to suddenly be nervous? It was obviously just another package sent by delivery to the professor, and knowing the man he'd catch hell if Toby were to delay a precious sample from being examined even a moment. With a sigh, Toby opened the door and was, for a moment, blinded by the sunlight shining in his eyes. He blinked a few times before his vision managed to clear, and he looked at the deliveryman.

Or rather, he looked at what he first assumed to be the deliveryman. As his vision cleared further Toby could see this person was anything but a deliveryman. In fact, it was exactly what Toby needed (or wanted, at least). Before him was a beautiful woman (more a girl, really). She was older than Toby, that was for certain, and her long legs rose up into short-shorts that left little to the imagination. From her beautifully toned and tanned legs her body swept outwards into an ample set of hips before curving back inwards to the taut, exposed, tanned tummy. From there her body swept back outwards with her ample breasts, up to shoulders with chestnut brown wavy hair that spilled over them that framed a face with pouting lips, a pair of brown bedroom eyes and a face that was, by Toby's estimates, to die for.

Of course she was an attractive teenager, but she wasn't the vision of Aphrodite that Toby's mind seemed to make her out to be. Truth be told, the boy was a nerd, and more than that he was a very, very socially retracted nerd and had spent a very long period of time away from people his age, so such a sudden assault of a pretty, even if not jaw-droppingly so, girl was like setting a cannon off next to a man who has spent fifteen years in complete silence - it was overwhelming.

Thus, it was understandable that Toby was suddenly dumbstruck and unable to speak. He simply gaped at the attractive, smiling girl before him.

"Hi there," She said sweetly, leaning in towards Toby and exposing a bit of cleavage from her deep-necked tanktop. Toby just gulped audibly. The girl giggled. "My name's Peony, do you think you could help me out?"

"With wha-" Toby squeaked, he took a moment to clear his voice and tried to take on a semblance of confidence while he talked to the attractive girl. "With what?"

"Oh, I've just got some problems back in the woods over there," Peony pointed in a direction almost absent-mindedly, dipping her head down again to give Toby another eyeful of cleavage. "My scooter broke down, do you think you can fix it?"

Normally, Toby would have been rational-minded enough to realize he had no idea how to fix a scooter. Normally he would have just offered to call a mechanic or a taxi or anything. Normally he would have questioned what a girl was doing riding a scooter through a forest. But a combination of being away from girl's his age, Peony's attractiveness, and the inviting eyefuls of her cleavage she was offering up caused Toby's brain to reset to default settings. In other words, nod head and say yes to anything the pretty set of boobs says.

"Yes." Toby nodded his head, still staring.

"Great!" And though Peony's voice was chipper and cheerful the sweet expression on her face had been replaced with a nasty look of disgust as she promptly turned around and, with a wiggle in her nicely shaped behind, began to lead the eager teenager into the forest.

They were only about fifty yards away from the building when Toby, eyes still firmly fixed on Peony's derriere, began to suspect something. First and foremost, they weren't really near any major roads. In fact, they were nowhere near any major roads. There was a small road that led to one of the few large highways that crossed the land that went by the lab but it was so rarely used as to be practically forgotten. The fact that there wasn't anything in the area but forest and wilderness meant it was an ideal location for on-site studies of wild Pokemon and little else. So why had Peony been driving through the area?

The next big tipoff that Toby had to foul play was when Peony suddenly whirled around, almost causing the boy to run into her, before she shoved him to the ground and retrieved a Pokeball off her hip that he hadn't noticed and let a large, looming Onix out.

"Baby, if he so much as moves an inch, to get up or go for his Pokemon, bite him." Peony commanded as the Onix named Baby leaned its massive stone head down till it was only a few feet away from Toby who, for his part, attempted to become one with the ground and make no movements that would cause those massive jaws to clamp down on his body.

Suddenly they were no longer alone, men in black outfits with red R's stitched boldly on the fronts and backs joined them, each one looking unsavory and mean. Among then was a tall, well-dressed man who scared Toby the most despite his pleasant smile. He was tall and handsome, his suit had a single R stitched on one breast but above it was a smaller 2. R Squared, Toby wondered.

"Here he is sir," Peony said obediently, eyes shining with a bit of worship as the man looked Toby up and down for a moment before looking away with an almost dismissive twist of his head. Toby felt hurt, for some reason, as if he hadn't passed a test or something. He wanted to shake the feeling off, but the rock-snake that was almost obsessively peering down at him kept him from moving.

"Yes indeed," The man said. Toby took in more details as the man seemed to think. His dark hair was slicked back, and his skin was attractively tanned. He looked lean and strong, and in his dark jacket and slacks with his light gray high-collared shirt underneath. It was a unique presentation that made him seem dignified and intimately powerful at the same time. Dark sunglasses obscured his eyes, but it was easy to tell when his attention was focused on you.

"Lets go meet with the doctor shall we? Peony you may accompany me for the good work you've done, men, stay here and guard the boy."

"Thank you boss!" Peony said happily as she recalled her Onix back while the men surrounded Toby who, for his part, just sprawled on the ground and closed his eyes and hoped that when he opened them again it would have all proven to be nothing more than a nightmare after accidentally falling asleep at his desk.

Dr Montgomery was eagerly in the middle of examining his latest sample via yet another test when he heard the loud, clear knocking on the door to the lab. He ignored it, confident that Toby would get it and take care of whoever was out there. A few minutes passed before the knocking came again, this time a little louded and more insistent. Montgomery grumbled and took a look at his sample before, ever so reluctantly, he rose from his workstation and walked towards the door (but not without a wistful look back at the sample). After leaving the workroom and crossing the main room of the building to the door he opened it to see Peony and the Rocket Boss standing there expectantly, Peony a step behind the Boss out of respect.

Montgomery was immediately nervous before the taller, smiling man. "Ca- Can I help you?"

"Doctor Leon Montgomery?" The man asked in a deep, smooth voice.

"Yes..."

"I'd like to talk with you please, if you don't mind stepping out of your lab for a short while. I feel it will be easier to discuss this in a more..." The man paused to search for an appropriate word. "Natural environment."

Leon took a half step from the door. "I'm in the middle of some very important work right now, Mr..."

"Strauss." The man named Strauss took a step inside the lab, causing Montgomery to back away despite himself. "And I have something of a proposition if you're willing to listen. Your young assistant is already... in the care of some of my associates. So if you would..." Strauss then stepped back and to the side, sweeping with his arm to beckon the doctor. "Would you mind stepping outside to discuss this in a less delicate environment?"

Peony snickered to herself as the doctor, slowly and with cautious footsteps, left the building, looking between Peony and Strauss with erratic, darting movements.

Finally he was outside, and with Strauss leading the way they began to walk towards the rest of the Rockets, with Peony walking behind Montgomery and staying close on his heels while he tried to shuffle and delay their trip.

When they arrived it was to the snickering of the Rockets, a noise that ended with a glance from their boss. On the ground Toby looked at Montgomery plaintively.

"Hi." Toby said weakly.

"Hello." An equally weak reply from the professor.

"Don't worry," Strauss began smoothly. "It is not our intention to hurt either of you today, and I do apologize for the circumstances under which we'll conduct these... negotiations." Strauss smiled at the last word. "But I wanted to make sure I had your full attention and that you didn't outright dismiss me without hearing what I fully had to say, as I also have no intentions of disguising who I am."

"M- make your case," Montgomery tried to sound confident. He came off spineless.

"You have certain talents I find impressive. Oh no, don't try to deny it, you sir are a legitimate genius," Strauss began, not even waiting for Montgomery to protest (not that he would have against allegations like those). "And your field of work, and more specifically subject of interest, coincides with my own. In short - I'd like you to consider working for me."

Toby and Montgomery hadn't quite expected this. Toby's mouth gaped open with shock while Montgomery's flapped open inaudibly.

"Do consider this before you answer - I have power. I have power and money and connections. The finest equipment you desire? Yours. Research samples gathered from across the world, taken from where you specify and delivered straight to you at fastest possible speed? Yours. You can even publish your findings in journals across the world - but only after you help me out. And that's all I ask in return, for you to help me a bit. I have a dream of my own, and with your help it can be realized."

Montgomery was being lulled into it, he liked the idea. For a long time he had desired such things - the money to purchase the equipment he needed, the connections to obtain the samples to examine, the chance to prove himself, his theories, and receive world-wide acclaim...

But to ally himself with such a man? He was smooth and charismatic, but beneath that he was still a kidnapper and holding them hostage, there was to be no mistake about that.

As slowly as he could, Leon began to reach back for the Pokeballs on his belt. Toby noticed the motion and began to copy it.

"I'd caution you against making any unwise decisions right now..." There was menace in Strauss's voice, but the hard tone was a catalyst.

Without thinking about it Leon had already pulled a Pokeball free and released the Pokemon inside, a large Snorlax bounding out and towering over Strauss.

"G-G-Go!" Leon stutted, Toby was frozen in motion, a hand grasping for a Pokeball but not closing on it.

Strauss just sighed, melodramatically in mockery of the feeling of disappointment.

"Tsk tsk tsk... I had thought we could settle this like gentlemen." Strauss said woefully as he released one of his own Pokemon, his subordinates watching their boss work gleefully, enjoying the spectacle.

A monstrous Tyranitar stood before Strauss when the light faded.

"Le- Le- Lear! Brick Break!" Montgomery commanded.

Strauss sighed again as the Snorlax rushed in to smash the Tyranitar in the face. Despite herself, Peony gasp in fright as the Snorlax's fist impacted with the Tyranitar's face.

"Good job." Strauss said, with a mock yawn.

"Th- Thanks!" Montgomery replied.

"Oh? No. Not you, Gigan, good job. Now Crunch."

Montgomery gasped as hopped to the side and looked at the scene again. The Tyranitar's jaws closed down on the Snorlax's fist with a messy, loud CRUNCH noise. Leon realized that the Tyranitar had stopped the blow from actually hitting by grabbing his Snorlax's fist in its deadly jaws. As his Snorlax fell to the ground with a tremor and a loud groan of pain, Montgomery slumped to the ground in defeat, numb fingers barely able to recall his defeated Pokemon back to its ball. The savagery and swiftness of the battle had numbed him from the shoulders down, and Leon couldn't even muster enough backbone to look up.

"Now, lets not make such foolish decisions again in the future, shall we?" Strauss warned with a nasty smile on his face.

A loud cry of pain alerted both of them to one of the Rockets beating Toby, having noticed the boy's frozen fingers near his Pokeballs. He was kicking the boy on the ground who had curled up to protect himself, when he himself was suddenly knocked to the ground by Strauss.

"Don't! Presume! To! Do! As! You! PLEASE!" Strauss's face had gone red with anger and veins bulged out on his neck, spittle formed at the corners of his mouth with unrestrained rage. Montgomery watched in numb fascination as Strauss beat one of his own men for presuming to do something on their own and insult his misguided sense of gentleman's pride.

"If you ever do that again..." Strauss warned the slumped form of the Rocket grunt on the ground, "I'll feed you to my fucking Garchomp."

Strauss turned back around to look at Montgomery, a forced smile on his face.

"So... shall we return to the negotiations?"

Montgomery nodded, "I... I think your offer has fully piqued my interest," And to be fair, it had. "Lets discuss the details inside the laboratory... it's much too hot out here."

"And I trust you and your assistant will surrender your Pokemon for the time being? In good faith?" Strauss asked.

"Yes... in good faith."

After Leon surrendered his Pokemon to Peony, who took them with a snide smile on her face, and helped Toby up and given his Pokemon over to the girl as well, the two began to walk back to the lab, tears in Toby's eyes while Leon maintained a grim expression. Yes, he would work for Strauss. And he might even get great things accomplished. But he would never like the man. Oh no, he swore that.

But, in the back of his head, he thought back to how decently, all things considered, the man had treated them. And the seeds of something were sown that day.


End file.
